


Reiss, Immaculate

by caitybelle_ackeryandere



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Anal Sex, Angry Sex, Angst, Assassination Attempt(s), BDSM, Biting, Blow Jobs, Cock & Ball Torture, Deviates From Canon, Discipline, Drug Use, Dubious Consent, Firsts, Gore, Heavy BDSM, Hurt/Comfort, Hypnotism, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Light Bondage, M/M, Manipulation, Master/Pet, Masturbation, Mild Gore, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Out of Character, Porn, Porn With Plot, Pre-Canon, Punishment, Sensory Deprivation, Sexual Content, Smut, Spanking, Teasing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-11 04:36:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 114,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4421618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caitybelle_ackeryandere/pseuds/caitybelle_ackeryandere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Kenny and Uri meet in the field on the Reiss estate, it isn't their first meeting.  In fact, it isn't even the first time that Kenny attempts to assassinate Uri.</p>
<p>That night of their first encounter, Kenny had intended to kill Uri, but curiosity had gotten the best of him.  After all, dead men didn't normally tell their secrets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Confessional

**Author's Note:**

> Tagged "out of character" for Uri when he is under the influence of the coordinate/first king's ideology.
> 
> This is unrelated to my other Uriken fics.

This was the last place Kenny Ackerman had ever expected to be when he had agreed to assassinate Uri Reiss for the council.  Hunched over a beer at the bar, he glanced around the gloomy nightclub, an exclusive haunt for royals and merchants in the basement of Hotel Franz. A week into this fruitless mission, Kenny hadn’t seen the reclusive king once, but he had spotted his older brother Rod every night.  Tonight, however, as he watched the door out of the corner of his eye, Rod Reiss entered the club with another short man.  He at first didn’t recognize Uri, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, unlike his brother in every way.  Then, as he came into the dim light of the bar, Kenny realized his mark had finally come out from hiding.

His plan should have been flawless: flirt with the king, seduce him into coming back to his room in the hotel, and slit his throat through to the nape of the neck. It wasn’t anything that he hadn’t done before. Killing had always been easy, and being unreadable by the king’s hidden power would only make it easier. When he had finally spotted Uri, however, his heart fluttered in his chest.  Uri, dressed all in white, stood at the edge of the bar alone, his brother already having abandoned him.  Without the protection of Rod, Uri was an easy target, or so Kenny thought.

But then before Kenny could make his move, Uri had already approached him.

“I haven’t seen you before,” Uri, only standing as tall as Kenny’s chest, said as he stepped beside him.

Kenny hadn’t expected Uri to speak to him first.  He glanced down nervously at his beer, strands of his long dark hair falling across his gray eyes.

“Oh, I just, uh… I thought I’d try something new,” Kenny answered.

By the way Uri looked at him, Kenny would have thought that the king was the hunter instead of the prey.

“Oh, something new?  Interesting…” Uri looked to the bartender. “Could we get something a bit stronger over here?  Something…new.”

The bartender shrugged, placed two glasses on the bar, and poured them a shot each of blue liquor.  Uri grasped his shot glass and raised it to his new acquaintance.  Kenny, his dark brow furrowed slightly, smirked and clinked his shot against Uri’s.

“Cheers,” Uri chuckled.

“Cheers.”

At that, they threw back their shots and slammed the glasses down on the bar. Uri swept his shaggy platinum hair away from his eyes.

“I’m not normally so forward,” he said, “but I couldn’t help but noticed that your eyes lit up when you saw me.  What’s your name?”

“Kenny.”

“Just Kenny?”

“Yeah, just Kenny.”  He eyed his target. Did this petite recluse really require an Ackerman to kill him?  “How about you?”

“Just Uri, I suppose.”  He shrugged his shoulders, surprisingly well muscled beneath his linen jacket. “My brother talked me into coming tonight.  He said there might have been someone in whom I would be interested.”

“Oh, is that right?” Kenny curled his lip. “Was he correct?”

Uri smirked shyly.  “Yeah… but I can’t quite read you.”

Kenny’s heart sank in his chest.  His fingers itched toward the knife, holstered in his blazer.

“…I find that incredibly alluring, if I may be honest.”

Kenny relaxed his hand.  “Oh?” He looked away. “To be honest, I’ve never done this sort of thing.  I’ve been hanging around for a week, and there have been plenty of offers, but I guess I’ve been waiting on the right person…”

Uri leaned against the bar.  “What exactly are you trying to say?” he asked curiously.  “Are you saying that you want me to solicit you?”

“Is that what I’m saying?”  Kenny blushed furiously. Although he had killed plenty of times, he had never seduced anyone into a death trap.  Actually, he hadn’t seduced anyone ever.  “I don’t know… I mean, if you wanted to… I thought this was the sort of place to be more direct, if you know what I mean.”

Kenny had never wanted to melt into the shadows and disappear into nothingness like he did when Uri laughed.

“You are right about that.  If you’re here, you’ve pretty much already set forth your intentions for the evening, but most people aren’t typically so quick to jump in bed.”  Uri surveyed him, his blue eyes lingering on Kenny’s lips. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to drink for a while first, but you must have other plans. Why are you really here?”

Kenny bit his lip and leaned in toward Uri.  “I know who you are, Uri Reiss,” he whispered, “and I wanted to meet you. That’s why I’m here.”

For just a moment, Uri stared blankly at Kenny, but then he nodded. “We’ve met before, haven’t we…? I swear that I’ve seen your face.”

Kenny’s chest tightened.  “Maybe… Someone told me about you.  They said you’re exactly whom I’m looking for.”  He hadn’t lied, but the truth was more complicated.

“I guess that’s why Rod said you had been staring him down all week,” Uri said under his breath.  “You were waiting for me to make my appearance.  Either you’re lucky that I finally showed, or I’m lucky for having such a handsome admirer.” He nudged the shot glasses toward the bartender.  “So you’re trying something new.  Women didn’t work out for you?”

“Yeah… I guess not.”

After the bartender refilled their shot glasses, Kenny snatched up his glass and threw back the strange blue liquor.  Uri followed suit.

“So you’ve been waiting for me all week,” Uri muttered.  “What if I said no?  What if I wasn’t interested?”

“You really get off on having power over a situation, don’t you? I’m not here to play any games. If you’re not interested, I’ll just leave now.”

“Oh, leaving isn’t necessary.”  Uri tapped his chin and raised his blonde eyebrows.  “You seem like a strong man, but I want to see how vulnerable you are. Vulnerability personally makes me nervous, given my position, but in someone else it really turns me on.”

Kenny could have easily killed Uri right there where he stood.  Honestly, he had been prepared to kill him publicly if he had to do it, as long as he had avenged the Ackerman family.  But a small part of him was curious, curious enough to play along with Uri.  Besides, vulnerability would gain Uri’s trust, even if he had no idea how it worked.

“No one has ever made me feel vulnerable before,” he admitted.  “I don’t know, but I may be okay with it if it was you who made me feel that way.”

Uri smiled. Something about the way his eyes lit up unnerved Kenny.

“Are you sure you want to do this?  I like you, Kenny… but please, be sure before anything else.”

Kenny looked away toward his empty shot glass, looked at anything but that twisted smile upon Uri’s lips.

“Okay, Uri Reiss…”

“Tell me what’s okay.”

Kenny’s cheeks burned. “What do you mean? Haven’t we been talking about it?”

Uri touched Kenny’s jaw gently.  “Tell me what you want me to do.”  When Kenny winced slightly beneath his touch, he smirked.  “I want to hear it from you.”

“Uri…” Kenny stared blankly at him. This must have been what he had meant by making him vulnerable, because he had never felt so exposed as he did in that moment.  Killing Uri Reiss would be much more satisfying after this.  “I want you…”

“What should I do?  What do you want from me?”

“I want you… I want you to come back to my room with me.”

“Upstairs?” Uri brushed his thumb across Kenny’s freshly shaven cheek.  “You did prepare yourself for me… I’m flattered that you’ve been renting a room for a week just on the off-chance I would be here.”

Kenny had already begun to fantasize about Uri, his throat slashed to his spine, his bed sheets stained crimson.  A bit of his confidence returned at the thought.

“I’ve been thinking about you all week,” he whispered.  “I’m glad you came tonight.”

“Good.” Uri grasped the lapel of Kenny’s jacket and pulled him down to his level.  “I hope I don’t disappoint you.”

Without hesitation, Uri pressed his lips to Kenny’s, kissing him greedily. Kenny wanted to recoil, to pull away, but he steadied himself and his resolve.  Uri would pay later, he reminded himself.  Uri would pay for making his heart leap in his chest. Uri broke off the kiss and trailed his hands down Kenny’s chest.

“Show me the way,” he whispered, “but I want you to grab my hand and guide me. I want everyone to know that you’re with me.”

For being a reclusive royal, Uri had some strange voyeuristic quirks. Kenny would have been lying if he had said part of him didn’t find it strangely exciting.  He took Uri’s hand in his, brought it to his chapped lips, and kissed his slender fingers.

“You didn’t seem to be the type to like to show off.”

“If you’ve been watching my brother all week, then you know that showing off is sort of a Reiss quality.”

“Heh.”

Kenny, still grasping Uri’s hand tightly, backed away from the bar and tugged Uri toward the exit.  He felt every eye upon him, the beautiful stranger who was leaving with the king. Through the dark underground bar and up the stairs of the hotel, he led Uri to his room.  His heart pounded in his chest. All he had to do was get Uri inside and kill him.  It didn’t matter if he lost his life soon after.  This was it… Kenny unlocked the door and held it open.

“Well, come on,” he muttered.

Uri huffed playfully.  “If you’re going through such trouble to seduce me, you don’t get to just order me to come inside with you.  Make me want to follow you in.”

Just a little bit more, Kenny thought, and then Uri would be dead. It didn’t matter what he did at this point.  He would never tell a soul, and Uri would be too dead to talk either.  He slinked against the doorframe and beckoned Uri.

“I’d like to fornicate under the consent of the king,” he said.

“Pffffft!” Uri laughed, clutching his side. “Oh my god, really? Wow.  You’re cute.  I think I’m crazy over you now.”

“If you’re crazy over me, get in here now and come get me.”

“I’m not going to turn that down.”

Uri shoved Kenny hard back into the room and slammed the door shut behind him. Kenny had started to reach for his knife in his blazer, but then Uri’s hands were on him, seizing Kenny’s hands and placing them firmly on his shoulders.  Uri nudged Kenny back onto the bed, standing over him and kissed him deeply. A warm feeling spread throughout Kenny’s heart, and for a moment, he forgot whom he kissed, but then Uri had stripped him of his jacket and had thrown it over his shoulder, his knife still hidden in the breast pocket.  He blindly reached for it, but Uri shoved him back.

“Relax,” Uri whispered in his ear.  “I’ll make you feel good.”

“But my jacket…”

“It’s fine where it is.”

“But—“

“I told you. It’s fine where it is.”

Kenny could have thrown him off now and retrieved his knife, but the warm feeling had already spread to his belly.  A growing part of him wanted Uri to continue.  After all, he reminded himself, Uri wouldn’t be telling anybody with a gash in his throat.  Losing control just once wouldn’t hurt him, Kenny told himself.

“Yeah… but be more gentle with my other clothes, okay?”

Uri chuckled. “Okay.  Goodness, you’re demanding… Let’s see how demanding you are then.”

Pressing his lips to Kenny’s once more, Uri straddled him and pushed his back flat against the bed.  As they kissed, he slowly unbuttoned Kenny’s shirt, revealing his chiseled chest. Pushing aside the shirt, he trailed his hands up from Kenny’s waist, over his defined abdominal muscles, and his shapely pectorals.  Uri curled his lip.

“Dear god,” he muttered, “you’re gorgeous.  And you chose to mess around with me?”

Kenny didn’t really know what to say, considering Uri must have been ignoring his obvious scars from previous attempts on his life by the king’s men, so he just went by instinct.

“I want to feel good, Uri… Please, make me feel good.”

_What the fuck was he saying?_ Uri’s eyes lit up at his words.

“Oh, I look forward to making you feel good,” he said.  “I want you to squirm beneath me and moan and beg for it…”

“Then do it!” Kenny snapped, surprising not only Uri but also himself.

“Heh…if that’s what you need.”  Uri kissed down Kenny’s neck and nipped at his collarbone, his teeth scraping across the tender flesh.  “Then relax. I’m not going to hurt you, but I’m going to make you feel good in a way you never thought possible.”

Kenny winced when Uri’s fingertips brushed gently across his nipples. Gauging Kenny’s response carefully, Uri kissed across his chest and sucked a nipple into his warm mouth. Kenny bit his lip sharply, clutching the bedspread, and arched his back, pressing against Uri’s hot touch. Uri snickered.

“Don’t hold in your voice,” he whispered.  “Let me hear you…”

When Uri touched him again, Kenny moaned much more loudly than he had anticipated. Much to his chagrin, the warm feeling had spread much farther south.  He didn’t understand why he wanted Uri so badly now, but something deep inside of him ached painfully for Uri’s touch.  For just a moment, he forgot how much he had wanted Uri dead. As Uri continued to lightly tease his nipples with his fingertips, he nipped at his collarbone and sucked hard, leaving a strategically placed welt, just low enough to be easily covered by the collar of his shirt.

“Your moans are cute,” he whispered.  “Your body is pretty sensitive… I bet I could make you cum by just teasing you.”

“No, Uri…” Kenny gasped.  “Don’t tease me so much…”

“No?” Uri muttered into his neck.  “Then tell me… Should I fuck you until you cum?”

“Tch…” Kenny blushed furiously. He shouldn’t have allowed Uri to go this far, but his curiously had gotten the best of him.  Again, Uri would tell nobody about this once he choked on his blood, bubbling from a gash soon to be across his neck. “I don’t know if I’ll like it…”

“Then I guess I’ll have to work hard and make you enjoy it, right?”

“If you think you can… then fine.  Do it.”

Uri touched Kenny’s chin and licked his lips.  “Do what?”

“Tch…”

“I’ll only do exactly what you ask of me.  Everything I do is completely up to you.  Now… tell me what to do.”

Never in his life did Kenny ever expect to want this sort of vulnerability in his life. He grasped Uri by his shaggy hair and kissed him, nipping at his lower lip.  Then, as he broke away right before he melted into the king’s lips, he spoke.

“I want you to fuck me and make me feel good.”

“Oh, is that all?  I can do that… I’m pretty good at it too, if I may say so myself.”  Uri unbuttoned his own shirt, allowing it to fall away from his slender shoulders.  His pale, toned chest, in stark contrast to Kenny’s, was unmarred by scars. In fact, his skin was like a blank canvas, untouched by blades and bullets.  “But if you’re not into it after we begin, I’ll stop if you want me to. After all, this is your first time with a man, right?”

“Y-yeah… but don’t think that I need you to be gentle or anything!”

“Don’t worry,” Uri cooed, running his hands along the waistband of Kenny’s pants. “I’ll take good care of you…” Firmly, he tugged off his pants, and his eyes lit up.  “Huh… You’re quite excited about this, aren’t you?”  He wrapped his fingers around Kenny’s swollen cock and pumped it gently. When Kenny gasped loudly, he smirked. “You act like you’ve never been touched before…”

“I haven’t,” Kenny stuttered before realizing what he had said.  He shook his head.  “I mean… you know…”

“I thought you had tried women before?”  Uri’s eyes flashed.  “Oh… I see. Heh.  I don’t mind if you’re a virgin.  It just makes me wonder more what is your motivation…”

Kenny had never let down his guard enough to ever allow anyone to touch him. All his life, he had protected himself so well that he had no friends, no lovers, and no one to tell his deepest, darkest thoughts.  He had never planned to go this far, but his desires overtook his rationality. Dead men could never betray their secrets, he told himself.

“My motivation?” he whispered.  “Like I said, someone told me about you.  They said you would cure me of my sickness.”

“Sickness? What sickness?”

“That’s for you to figure out.”

Uri licked his lips.  “You know, I’m pretty sick myself.  Something deep inside me fucked me up pretty good.  I don’t think I could ever cure you unless I’m curing you of a boring life.”

“Yeah… a boring life,” Kenny whispered.  His life would be pretty boring once he accomplished his goal, once he had killed the king. “Maybe that’s right.”

With a smirk, Uri reached into his pocket and withdrew a small jar. Holding his breath, Kenny watched him open the jar and slick his slender forefinger and middle finger down to the second knuckle with a lubricant.  His stomach churned anxiously when Uri turned to him.

“What’s that for?” he stuttered.

Uri chortled. “It would really hurt if you weren’t properly prepared, especially for your first time.”

Internally, Kenny panicked.  He hadn’t exactly pegged Uri as the type to give rather than receive.  He propped himself up on his elbows and clamped his thighs tightly together.

“Wait,” he protested.  “You want to stick those fingers _where_?”

“Relax,” Uri whispered, his focus intensifying upon Kenny.  When his eyes darkened, a pressing feeling spread across the front of his brain.  Immediately, he knew that Uri was attempting to influence him, and if he didn’t act appropriately, the entire charade could easily collapse around him and leave him scrambling for a back-up plan.  Instead of allowing Uri to discover his Ackerman heritage, he decided to play along, as if Uri could control him.  He only hoped that by the time he uneasily relaxed and lay back against the pillows, Uri had not discovered his dark secret.  If he had figured it out by then, Uri didn’t betray it but simply nudged Kenny’s shaking thighs apart.  “That’s better,” he whispered as he wedged his waist firmly between Kenny’s knees.

“Just talk me through it, okay?” Kenny asked with a sigh.  “I should be okay as long as you give me a warning.”

Uri, his eyes as black as onyx, gazed at Kenny.  “I told you to relax.  That should be enough for you.”

Kenny’s heart thudded against his ribcage.  “Uri…?”

Uri jumped slightly, and the darkness faded from his eyes.  “Oh, I’m sorry…”  He brushed his free hand up Kenny’s thigh and smiled.  “Of course, I’ll talk you through it.  Just breathe, okay?  Don’t tense up…”  He pressed the pad of his lubed forefinger against his puckered entrance, tightening as he brushed the cool lubricant across it.  “Just relax… It won’t hurt, but it will be uncomfortable at first.” Gently, Uri pushed his fingertip inside. Kenny blinked.

“Th-that’s not so bad,” he whispered.  “It doesn’t hurt.”

“Oh? Good.”  Uri pressed his finger farther inside, down to the first knuckle, and then to the second.  “You’re pretty relaxed.  For someone who has never done this before, you’re doing really well to not jump and claw the ceiling.”

In actuality, Kenny might have done that very thing if not for the darkness he had seen in Uri’s eyes.  If he did react how he might have normally, his acting against the supposed mind control, telling him to relax, might have too soon revealed his true identity. Instead, with his heart thundering against the confines of his ribcage, he strengthened his resolve and stilled his shaking as Uri slid his second finger inside of him.

“How does it feel?” the young king purred, pressing his warm lips to Kenny’s belly. “I told you it wouldn’t hurt.”

“It doesn’t hurt, but…”  Kenny shifted his hips awkwardly.  “Is it supposed to feel good?”

At first, Uri seemed hurt, but then he recovered quickly.  With a chuckle, he sat upright.  “Well, now that you said it doesn’t hurt, I can make it feel good.” He curled his fingers, brushing against the inner wall.  Carefully, he prodded and rubbed the pads of his fingertips along the inside until suddenly Kenny inhaled sharply.  “Oh, did I find your spot? That wasn’t so difficult…”

When Uri massaged the spot inside of him that flooded his belly with warmth, Kenny clutched at the bedspread and gulped for breath.  The feeling inside of his belly was familiar yet foreign—familiar in the way that he had pleasured himself enough times to know intimately the feeling of needing to be touched more, foreign in that someone had forced that feeling inside of him almost unwillingly.  When a moan escaped his lips, the way Uri looked at him, his eyes filled with something he couldn’t even begin to recognize, he both wanted more of whatever Uri had to offer and to disappear into nothingness, never to feel so exposed again. When his hips shook and his thighs quivered, Uri smirked.

“How about now?” he asked.  “Does that feel good?”

“Yes,” Kenny answered breathlessly.  “It feels really good…”

“Heh.”

Suddenly, Uri withdrew his fingers and wiped them carelessly on the bedspread. Normally, Kenny might have scolded him for doing something so unclean, but his brain was otherwise occupied. Staring at the ceiling, Kenny shuddered when he heard the clinking of Uri’s belt buckle and the rustling of his pants as he struggled to take off his remaining clothes.  Once he had completely disrobed, he nudged Kenny’s knees toward his chest and positioned himself between his legs.  Hesitantly, Kenny glanced down at the king’s cock as Uri slathered himself with more lubricant.  His stomach twisted nauseously.

“Is that even going to fit?” he huffed.  To quell his own panic, he sputtered, “I mean, I guess I’ve taken shits that big so I guess I can take that.”

Uri stared blankly at him.  “Huh?”

“Uh, it was a joke…?”

“Oh.” Uri set aside the jar of lubricant on the nightstand and smirked.  “You’ll be fine.  You’ll be begging for a nightly fucking by the end of the night.”  He grasped the backs of Kenny’s knees and positioned the tip of his cock against Kenny’s entrance.  “Like I said, just relax…”

“I am relaxed,” Kenny said through his clenched jaw.

“Heh, okay.”

Before Kenny could think further about the situation in which he had found himself, Uri gently slid his cock inside of him.  Even when Kenny jumped and clawed at the bedspread, he pushed deeper, forcing himself in up to the hilt and stopping there.  When Kenny caught a glance of his face, still completely unreadable and twisted into a small smile, capturing his gray eyes’ gaze, Uri breathed out sharply, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips.  He shifted his shoulders and directed Kenny’s legs over them, supporting the larger man’s weight.  With a soft peck of his lips to Kenny’s inner thigh, slick with sweat, he tightened his grip on the other man’s hips, his fingernails digging into the hot, sticky flesh.

“I’m going to start moving now,” he said quietly.  “I advise that you move your hips as well.”

“Right,” Kenny squeaked through his gritted teeth.

With a tight smirk on his lips, Uri slowly shifted his hips and pulled out slowly, leaving only the tip inside.  Then, suddenly, he thrust hard.  At first, Kenny thought he might die from the twisted feeling in his gut, but when Uri nudged his hips, encouraging them to move with him, his fingers relaxed their grip on the bedspread, color returning to his white knuckles. Uri hugged Kenny’s thighs to his chest, his breath hot against them.

“That’s a good boy,” he murmured.  “You’re so tight… Move your hips and make some noise for me.  I want to hear that sexy voice…”

“I’m trying,” Kenny half-snapped, half-moaned.

With some effort, Kenny arched his back and grinded his hips against Uri. As the twisted feeling in his gut unfurled, a more urgent need, ineffable to him, never having needed anything from anyone, overtook him and spread through his body like wildfire. His fingers curled once more around the bedspread, and his legs squeezed Uri’s shoulders, a force that could have crushed a normal man.  His wide shoulders trembled fiercely, their quaking stifled by the pillows beneath him. Holding in his voice, Kenny blushed furiously, scarlet spreading from his face and across his chest. Uri, with bright red cheeks and his platinum hair sticking to his sweaty face, licked his lips.

“You’re doing so good,” he said, “but it’s just not right if you don’t make some noise. I can’t cum unless you do. Maybe you need some proper encouragement…”

What Kenny meant to say was that his curiosity was sated.  Uri had taken him to the edge, the only place that had ever genuinely frightened him.  The dead man, walking, however, wasn’t happy to just leave him there.  Uri brushed his soft hand across Kenny’s cock, his forefinger teasingly swirling across the tip and collecting precum upon the pad of his finger. Kenny hadn’t meant to moan so loudly at the prompting of Uri’s touch.  Uri’s eyes lit up darkly at the sound.

“That’s what I like to hear,” he said.

Uri wrapped his hand firmly around Kenny’s shaft and pumped it slowly at first, but as Kenny moaned louder, his grip tightened, and his hand moved faster. After a minute or two, Kenny threw his head back into the pillows and arched his back almost impossibly, his cries ricocheting off the headboard and filling the room. As Kenny’s voice filled his ears, Uri wrapped his free arm around Kenny’s thigh and thrust more urgently, his blue eyes widening with arousal.  Kenny didn’t even recognize the pressing on the front of his brain as Uri tried desperately to access his thoughts.  Finally, when Uri realized that his mental hints weren’t getting through to his lover, he spoke, his voice shaking.

“Cum for me, Kenny,” he begged.  “I can’t hold back any longer…”

Kenny had never wanted to expose himself like this, to show how vulnerable he was when completely overtaken by pleasure.  The thought of Uri, living with carnal knowledge of him etched into the back of his mind, churned in his belly, but when images of Uri’s imminent death flashed before his eyes, he was overcome by a strange serenity. Then, after a split second of calm, his hips buckled and shuddered as his orgasm washed over him, his cum splattering across his tense belly.  Feeling Kenny’s body tighten against him, the sounds of his moaning filling his ears and the bedroom and likely the bedrooms on either side of them, Uri thrust his hips one last time before succumbing to his own pleasure.  As the aftershock faded and as all his muscles relaxed, relief filled Kenny’s gray eyes, and he sank into the mattress with a loud gasp.

“Goddamn,” he gasped.

“Heh,” Uri huffed under his breath.  Gently, he nudged Kenny’s shaking legs off of his shoulders and pulled out slowly. He turned away his nigh unreadable face, clouded with blush and sweat, and pressed his forehead to Kenny’s knees. “Just relax for a second. Don’t move too quickly.”

A moment later, when Uri crawled to the edge of the bed and stood up, Kenny’s heart jumped in his chest.  “Wh-where are you going?” he stuttered, propping himself up on his elbows.  “You’re not leaving, are you?”

“Don’t worry,” Uri cooed.  “I’m just going to get something to clean you off with.  Just lay back and relax.  I’ll be right back to cuddle.”

“Okay…”

Kenny watched Uri as he stepped into the doorway of the bathroom and, without even stepping out of the bedroom, reached for a towel.  Uri’s unwillingness to take his eyes off of him could have been for any reason, but Kenny hoped it was that he was absolutely smitten with him instead of being suspicious of his identity and motivation. When he crossed over to the bed once more, Uri wiped off himself, then Kenny’s belly, and then between Kenny’s legs. Kenny tried to sit up, but Uri pushed him back down.

“Trust me,” he urged, “you don’t want to move too soon.”

Kenny shrugged.  “I feel fine, just dizzy…”

“Exactly. You’re dizzy.  You’ll hurt yourself.  Give yourself a minute longer.  When you’re okay to move, I’ll tell you to get up.”

“Right…”

Uri bent down and scooped his clothes off of the floor.  When he started to dress himself again, Kenny eyed him.

“Hey… why are you getting dressed?”

“I have to tell my brother where I am,” he muttered.  “He’s not likely to notice right now, but later when he’s ready to leave, he might panic if he doesn’t know.”

Kenny couldn’t allow Uri to leave.  If Uri left, he could lose his chance of vengeance against the Reiss family. Abruptly, he sat upright.

“How do I know that you’re not going to just leave?” he demanded. “Was it really that bad for you?”

“Heh, you’re right.  You don’t know. I could just leave, or you could leave as soon as I’ve left.  There’s nothing stopping that from happening…”  Darkness washed over Uri.  “…especially since I can’t control you.  Truly, you have free will.”

“What are you talking about…?”

With a smirk, Uri leaned across the bed and grasped Kenny’s chin.  His eyes were once more as black as a starless sky. “I knew you who you were the moment I saw you, Kenny Ackerman.  Do you really think I’m that stupid?”

Kenny’s heart shattered in his chest.  Of course, Uri had known.  Of course, Uri had read him the moment he saw him at the bar, standing alone. Of course, Uri had approached him, knowing fully well the identity that Kenny had struggled to hide. Of course, Uri had been two steps ahead of him the entire time.  He wanted to speak, to say anything, but his voice had failed him.  Uri Reiss had been the only man ever to overpower him with just words.  His hands fell weakly to his sides.

“No, of course, I didn’t think you were that stupid,” he whispered. “I figured you knew. I just want to know why… why did your family have to kill mine?”

“They had reasons that I don’t think were exactly rational,” Uri answered. He released Kenny’s chin and stepped back.  “You came to kill me tonight, didn’t you?  But I’ve done nothing but satiated your curiosity… Could you not let bygones be bygones? I like you enough to not turn you over to the Military Police.  Consider my mercy to be forgiveness of your sin against me.”

“Mercy? Forgiveness?”

Silence hung heavy in the air as Kenny considered his words.  Then, he laughed, unnerving even himself.

“I don’t want your fucking mercy.  I don’t want your fucking forgiveness.”

Uri nodded solemnly.  “Even so… you still have it.”  He turned to the door. “Good night, last of the Ackerman clan. I have no reason to kill you now. I hope you find peace.” Stopping in front of the door, he glanced over his shoulder.  “I expect you to not follow me and to leave me alone.  If you promise me that much, I won’t tell my brother about you, because he wouldn’t let you leave here alive.”

Something inside of Kenny snapped.  Without even deigning to respond to Uri, he jumped to his feet and dived for his blazer on the floor, his knife still in the breast pocket.  Sure, it was reckless to strike now, his eyes seeing only red, but now killing Uri meant so much more—Uri had witnessed him at a weak point, something that no one else could know about him.  Bracing his knife with both hands, he charged Uri, his blade aimed for his heart. However, Kenny had misjudged Uri’s own strength.  Uri brought his hand quickly up to his mouth and punctured the flesh with his sharp teeth, and then Kenny only saw white before an unseen force threw him into the wall. The back of his head sharply connected with the wall, and his vision faded to black.

When Kenny finally opened his eyes after some amount of time had passed, he was once more propped up in the bed.  Uri sat on the edge of the bed, glancing through a notebook that had been in Kenny’s pocket, the area under his eyes marred with red.  Kenny jerked upright, but he could only pull so much against the ties around his wrists, secured above his head to the headboard. Struggling, he gazed at Uri, both amazed that he had been overpowered again and also pissed off that this short blonde man was capable of getting the better of him time and time again.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he snarled.

Uri curled his lip.  “I just wanted to make sure you would wake up,” he said, putting aside the notebook. “You hit your head pretty hard, so I was afraid for a moment that I had killed you.  Ackermans are a pretty strong bunch, though, so since you were still breathing, I figured I’d stick around out of common decency.”

“Let me go!”

“You tried to kill me,” Uri sighed, rolling his eyes.  “I _would_ let you go, but you may try again.  I shouldn’t constantly forgive you for your trespasses against me, but I guess that’s just the type of man I am.”

Kenny huffed and tugged hard at his bonds.  “Then I’ll just wait to kill you until you’re not expecting it, so just let me go! Come on…”

“I won’t untie you, but I’ll do you a favor.”  Uri picked up the knife from the nightstand and pressed it to Kenny’s palm. “Certainly, given enough time, you can cut yourself free.  If not… well,” he muttered, glancing down at Kenny’s lap, “I put your pants back on so you’re not as embarrassed when housekeeping finds you tomorrow morning.”

Kenny’s cheeks swelled, turning scarlet.  “You bastard… I’ll fucking kill you…”

“Are you really stupid enough to try again?”

“I’m not stupid to try again,” he hissed.  “I’m stupid for trying to play along with your fucking games.”

“That might be true.”  Uri leaned in close to Kenny, their noses touching.  “But you have to admit that my game was more fun, right?”  He pressed his lips to Kenny’s, and again Kenny surprised himself by not pulling away or trying to bite him.  Instead, he savored Uri’s hot kiss upon his chapped lips, sending shockwaves through his heart.  When Uri pulled away, he chuckled.  “You say you want to kill me and then you kiss me like that?  Maybe you should reconsider our relationship…”

“Get out,” Kenny grumbled.  “Just leave me the fuck alone.”

“Right.” Uri stood up and backed away toward the door.  “Don’t work yourself up too much, okay?  I had a great time. I hope you did too.”

“I’ll kill you!” Kenny roared.  “I’ll fucking—“

Before Kenny could even finish his words, Uri left the room, and the door slammed shut behind him.  He thought to cut himself free as quickly as he could, but he knew Uri would be gone by the time he could make it back to the bar.  For the first time in recent history, he needed to lick his wounds and to rethink his next move. As he sawed through the ties around his wrists, he tried not to think of the dull pain inside his heart as well as the sharper pain farther south.

Surely enough, by the time Kenny had freed himself, redressed decently enough, and returned to the bar, he couldn’t find Uri or his brother Rod. That night, Kenny left the Hotel Franz in a hurry, never looking back at the venue of his most humiliating defeat yet. The next week, when the council met again, he didn’t report the full details on his encounter with Uri Reiss, but he promised to kill him within the week.  A man stronger than an Ackerman was too dangerous to allow living in the world.


	2. Sickness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uri Reiss has always tried to be a kind man. After all, he thought it was kind to allow Kenny to live after their first encounter. However, when Kenny attempts to kill him again, this time on the Reiss estate, Uri isn't sure if it's an act of kindness or cruelty to spare the assassin's life once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for chapter 69.
> 
> Follows the first encounter in chapter 69 with some creative license.

 

Uri Reiss had always thought of himself as kind: a kind brother, a kind uncle, a kind friend.  The coordinate inside of him, on the other hand, was a fucked-up son-of-a-bitch.  He had at first tried to keep himself separate from the sickness, but after a few months of exposure, he could no longer tell the difference. Uri had been a kind man, but now he was sick, depraved, sadistic.  He had become the man that he had looked forward to devouring his entire life. Perhaps he should have allowed that Ackerman to murder him.  It would have done the world and the doomed Reiss bloodline all a favor.

He had known the moment he had seen Kenny that the tall, handsome man had come to kill him. No one but assassins had ever been so desperate to be so close to him.  Killers had no fear of monsters, after all.  In the past, Uri had been smart about it, however.  He had never willingly left with someone who had planned to murder him.  He had never wanted to use someone like he had used Kenny Ackerman.  He wasn’t even sure if it was he that had done it; the coordinate inside of him was the sadistic bastard, not he.  Uri Reiss was a kind man, after all—he wouldn’t have done that.

“Uri… what are you doing all the way out here?”

Uri’s reverie shattered when his brother Rod’s voice reached his ears. Reluctantly, he tore his eyes from the river, tucked away in the forest upon the Reiss estate, and to Rod, looking down at him with dark eyes.  Shaking, he stood and brushed the grass off his black robe.

“Sorry, I was just thinking, and I guess I lost track of time.”  His gaze fell to the rifle, slung across Rod’s shoulder. “Were you hunting?”

“Yeah, I saw some ducks, but I missed.”

“So no duck for dinner tonight?  You always were a poor shot.”

“No duck,” Rod sighed.  “Guess we’ll just have the leftover stew from lunch.  There wasn’t any meat at the market today, so maybe I’ll send someone who’s a better shot to get those ducks tomorrow.”

“That’s okay. I saw that some apples had ripened in the orchard.  We could at least have some apple cobbler.”

“Oh, that does sound nice.  I’ll send someone to pick some when we get back to the house.”

“Well, it’s on our way.  Between the two of us, we can carry enough to make enough for everyone.”

Rod huffed, a small smile on his face.  “You’re really kind, you know, thinking of saving the people we pay to work from working.”  He chuckled. “Fine, let’s go.” He turned on his heels and walked in the direction of the orchard.

Uri quickened his pace and fell in beside his older brother.  “I’m not kind.”

“Are you going on about that again?”  Rod rolled his brown eyes.  “Is this about that night two weeks ago?”

“No…”

“Heh, Uri.” Rod grinned uneasily. “So an assassin tried to seduce you just to kill you.  You’re very kind for just messing with his head and sending him on his merry way.”

Except Uri had done no such thing—well, not in the way that Rod thought. Of course, he had messed with Kenny’s mind, despite being unable to manipulate an Ackerman’s brain. He looked down to his clenched fists.

“Right. You’re right.  I’m a kind man.”

Rod cleared his throat.  “My own internal investigation revealed that this might be the council’s doing. I’m not really sure what those old bastards are up to right now, but at least one, if not all of them, has betrayed us and hired that assassin to take you out.  We need to deal with them sooner than later.”

“Yeah… the council is likely behind it.  Who else would have known that I would be at the Hotel Franz?”  Uri shook his head.  “But I digress.  I’m not upset over that. It’s… much more complicated than that.”

Rod touched Uri’s shoulder gently.  “Are you still upset over accidentally making Frieda cry this morning?”

“I didn’t mean to…”

“You know, she’s just a baby.  She’ll cry over anything if given the chance.  It’s not like she’ll remember your breakdown anyway.  She’s probably already forgotten.”

“Yeah…” Uri nudged away Rod’s hand.  “You’re right. She won’t remember until she inherits this curse from me.  Then she’ll be able to access that memory from my point of view.  Then she’ll hate me, our father, and his father before him, and then she’ll hate you for bringing her into this doomed world.”

When Rod shuddered and turned away, Uri knew he shouldn’t have said it. Uri had never meant to hurt his older brother, who had been too afraid to inherit the curse for himself, who had put the burden off on his younger brother.  They remained silent until they reached the orchard, and even then they didn’t speak.  Uri bundled up the front of his cloak and stuffed it full of Cripps Pinks, marbled light-red and yellow apples.  With a groan, Rod slung his rifle over his shoulder and filled his arms with apples as well.

“Come on,” his older brother grumbled.  “Let’s hurry back to the house.  Our wagon is just across the clearing there.”  He nodded toward the open field, beside the country road.

As they walked together, Uri silently contemplated the apple on the top of his bundle. When he picked it up and brought it to his lips, Rod glanced over at him.

“Don’t eat them all,” he said, laughing slightly.  “Just wait until you get to the wagon and put them down, at least. Show some self-restraint.”

“Just one, okay?” Uri chuckled.  “It’s not like it’s that big of a deal, just having one.  You know, I have amazing self-restraint…”

_Amazing self-restraint_. Had it been amazing self-restraint that Uri had allowed Kenny Ackerman to live?  Had it been not such a big deal, taking advantage of the man’s desire to murder him?  He smirked to himself. Of course, he had shown self-restraint. He would have done so much more if he hadn’t. Then when he walked into Rod’s back, his thoughts shattered.

“Hey… why did you stop?” he muttered.

Rod pointed at the wagon at the edge of the field.  Uri at first didn’t notice, but then he saw that it had been turned over on its side, and the horse was unconscious on the ground—that was, of course, if it wasn’t dead.  Shuddering, Rod approached the wagon.

“I thought you had said you had messed with that assassin’s mind and had sent him on his way, Uri…”

“I did, but… like I said, it’s complicated.”

“What? Do you mean that the council could have sent another one?”  Rod gritted his teeth.  “He’s nearby… I’m going to see if I can at least salvage the wagon, but keep an eye out.”

When Uri turned around, he saw a man, dressed in a long trench coat and a fedora, at the edge of the clearing.  His heart stopped in his chest.  Even at this distance, he recognized Kenny.  Rod looked and stood dumbly for a moment, staring back at the Ackerman, before he dropped his armful of apples and fumbled for the rifle, slung on his back.  At that, Kenny emerged from the underbrush and charged toward Uri, his knife gripped in his right hand.  Uri shoved Rod behind him and ran toward the threat as his brother screamed unintelligibly at him.  With only twenty feet between them now, Uri dropped his apples and brought his hand up to his mouth. His intent pictured clearly in his mind, he clamped down on his thumb, piercing the flesh.

A bright light flashed outward from Uri as his Titan body partially materialized, lying flat on the ground.  Instinctively, he caught Kenny in the Titan’s hand and suspended him in the air. The horrified look on Kenny’s face might have caused Uri’s stomach to churn if the coordinate within him hadn’t taken over, his eyes clouded over with darkness.  Finally, at this point, Rod regained his senses and stepped around the Titan’s shoulder, close to the nape where Uri stood. The older Reiss gripped his rifle and aimed at Kenny, struggling against the Titan’s grasp.  His voice shook like his hands when he spoke.

“Like I said, it seems the mole that leaked our information was part of the council or at least had some connections to it,” Rod said, “and I need to find out who it is.” His grip on his rifle tightened. “To do so, I’ll do whatever it takes to make him talk.”

Kenny recoiled visibly, his hair falling across his face.  He hadn’t spoken yet, but his face told Uri everything that he needed to know—only a monster from humanity’s collective nightmares could leave that man speechless.

“That won’t work,” Uri said.  His eyes flashed as he stared at Kenny, trapped in his grip and holding tightly to his knife still. “He’s a descendant of the Ackermans.” His heart fluttered. “He has a reason to point his blade at me.”

Uri thought he might react with words, thought he might argue or say anything at all, but instead Kenny flipped the blade in his hand and launched the knife, hurtling through the air.  Uri thought to let the blade penetrate his heart, but when Rod screamed his name, his free arm shot up and shielded his chest.  The silver blur pierced his forearm and buried itself up to the hilt, the very edge of the blade stabbing through his limb and touching his collarbone. Dizzy from adrenaline and totally under the control of the coordinate, he stood firm, locking eyes with the assassin, as steaming blood poured down his wrist and dripped off his hand. When Kenny saw that he had missed his target, he snapped.

“Ahhh, fuck!” he screamed, trembling in the Titan’s grip.  “C’mon… you’re the king, aren’t you?  Overlook this just once, won’t you?”  His gray eyes widened in a panic.  “Let me go!  Please!”

As Kenny screamed, his pleas becoming unintelligible, Uri’s heart crumbled in his chest. Unaccustomed to ever losing a fight, this man had forsaken any sort of dignity as soon as he had found himself at the mercy of a monster.  Then again, Kenny had nothing left to lose—his family was probably dead and Uri had likely crushed whatever pride was left of him.  Uri should have just crushed the Ackerman in his hand and been done with it. That’s what his father and his father’s father would have done.  Men without anything left to live for were too dangerous to leave alone in the world. However, something in him wavered. Uri wasn’t cruel like the coordinate. Uri was a kind man. Slowly, the Titan hand lowered to the ground and released Kenny, bewildered and confused, from his grip. Rod gasped when he looked over to see Uri, tearing his hand free of the Titan’s muscle fibers. As Uri, clutching his injured arm to his chest, crossed toward him, Kenny fell back onto the scorched earth, his gray eyes glossy with fear.

“Uri…!” Rod stuttered, his voice somewhere between a squeak and a growl. “What are you doing? That’s an Ackerman!” When Uri continued to walk closer to Kenny, Rod continued his babbling.  “We can’t wipe his memories!  The only way out is to kill him!”

Rod’s words must have brought Kenny back to his right mind, because the assassin reached into his khaki trench coat and drew a pistol, aimed at Uri. However, when Uri suddenly dropped to his knees on the ground before Kenny, he hesitated.  His hand trembled, despite his thumb poised on the hammer of the gun. His ragged breaths hung heavy in the air.

“Huh…?” Kenny whispered to himself.

Uri bowed his head, pushing down the darkness within.  The coordinate struggled with him, trying to reach the surface once more, but he closed his eyes and focused on the kind man within.

“If we think about what we’ve done to the Ackermans for all these years, his rage is understandable.”  When he looked up, his vision was not clouded by darkness but by tears instead. “But… I can’t die now, not yet.” He clenched his eyes shut and prostrated himself.  “So please… forgive me for failing to make this little wall of ours the paradise we’d all dreamed of.”

Uri wouldn’t have blamed Kenny if he could never forgive him.  After all, Kenny had no reason to trust him, not after everything he had done.  Then, in the corner of his eye, he saw Kenny, setting aside his gun and abandoning it in the grass. When Kenny hesitantly lumbered toward Uri, Rod cocked back the hammer on his rifle.

“Don’t you dare move…!” he snapped.  “Uri, get away from him!”

“Uri…,” Kenny whispered, reaching out and touching Uri’s injured arm. “I should be the one asking for forgiveness.  I really don’t have a reason to hate your entire family…”

Uri sat upright suddenly, tears streaming down his cheeks.  “R-really?”

“Y-yeah…” Kenny grasped the handle of his knife and slowly pulled it from Uri’s forearm.  The wound healed impossibly fast, steam rising into Kenny’s face. “That’s right. I only have reason to hate you.”

Uri wasn’t sure if it was Kenny’s words or his knife that wrenched his gut so painfully. He looked down at the hilt of the knife, buried in his abdomen.  Numbly, he fumbled to wipe the tears on his cheeks.  Right.  It didn’t matter that Uri had been a kind man.  To Kenny Ackerman, he wasn’t even a man, let alone a kind one.  To Kenny Ackerman, he was a monster, plain and simple.

“That’s fair,” Uri whispered.  “I deserved that.”

“Uri, no!” Rod screamed at the sight of his younger brother’s blood, evaporating on Kenny’s hand, still on the hilt of the knife.  “You bastard…!”

When Rod’s finger touched the trigger, Uri flung himself over Kenny, knocking the taller man back onto the ground.  The motion had buried the knife further in his gut, sending shockwaves of pain throughout his entire body.  Still, the agony he felt then couldn’t make amends for everything the Reiss family had done to the Ackerman clan.  Despite the threat of death, Kenny didn’t move to protect himself from staring down the barrel of Rod’s rifle.

“Rod, please, don’t kill him,” Uri gasped, groping for the handle of the knife.

“Why not?” Rod demanded, foaming at the mouth.  “He’s too dangerous to let live!  Why are you protecting him?  He just stabbed you!”

“I need him,” Uri croaked.  His hand closed around Kenny’s, still clutching the knife.  His eyes pleaded silently with Kenny.  “I just… need him.”

Kenny’s hand wavered beneath Uri’s, and slowly he tugged the blade free from the king’s belly.  The color drained from his face when he looked to Uri’s abdomen, only to see a layer of flesh where there should have been a wound.  Wonder and dread filled his colorless eyes.

“What kind of monster are you?” he asked meekly.

Uri opened his mouth to speak, but then the butt of Rod’s rifle struck Kenny squarely in the temple and knocked out the Ackerman.  Standing over them, Rod glared down at Uri, and his younger brother returned the hateful gaze.  Uri sat upright, still straddling Kenny’s unconscious body.

“Why did you do that?” Uri snapped.  “He was calming down.  If you had just given me five more minutes, I could have—“

“Uri, you have limits to how much you can heal in a certain amount of time,” Rod retorted.  “How many more times did you plan to allow him to stab you?”

“As many times as he felt was necessary.”

Rod narrowed his dark eyes.  “What did you do to him exactly…?”

“Like I said, it’s complicated.”

“What are you going to do now?”

Uri stumbled to his feet and looked to the overturned wagon and the horse, slowly coming to consciousness.  He sighed.

“I’ll do what I think is right.  Can you trust me with that?”

Rod pressed his thin lips together and turned away.  He slung his rifle over his shoulder once more and trudged to the wagon.

“I’ll pray for you, Uri, but that’s all I’ll do.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

Uri had been in his office, idly reading the newspaper, when he heard a crash, followed by muffled cursing, in the drawing room.  With a sigh, he tossed aside the paper, rose from his place at the desk, and sauntered into the other room.  His eyes scanned the entire room before finally settling on Kenny, toppled over on the patterned rug.  The king smirked at his prisoner.  Certainly, an Ackerman, trussed and gagged, enhanced the antique caquetoire chair.

“Will this be a recurring theme, you being knocked out and getting tied up by me?” he asked, rubbing his chin.  “I don’t mind, but realistically, how long can we keep up this charade? Knocks to the head can’t be that good for a man.”

Kenny hissed and snapped at Uri unintelligibly through the gag and flailed against the ropes, tying his arms and legs to the chair.  The way his chest moved when he struggled, rising with ragged breaths, his white button-up shirt stretched across his shapely pectorals, only served to excite Uri further.  He crossed toward Kenny, bent down, and grasped the back of the chair.

“If you struggle, you’ll only fall over again.  Just relax.  I’m not going to hurt you.”

With a grunt, Uri heaved the chair upright.  When he moved his hands to Kenny’s broad shoulders, the would-be assassin sucked in a sharp breath and flinched at the light touch.  Smirking, Uri trailed his fingers across Kenny’s deltoids, along the back of his neck, through his dark hair, and to the back of his head, all the while relishing his squirms.  Slowly, he leaned toward Kenny, his breath hot on his ear, and looped his finger around the gag’s loose knot.

“If you promise not to scream and yell, I’ll take out the gag,” he said. “My little villa is right next to my brother’s house, and your shouts might wake up my precious baby niece.”

Kenny glared at him, his eyes blown wide with rage and anticipation. Uri clicked his tongue.

“I don’t know,” he muttered.  “That look doesn’t seem so promising.  Maybe I’ll leave you like this for a while until you calm down.”

When Kenny furrowed his brow and lowered his angry gaze away from him, Uri hummed.

“Oh, don’t pout about it.  I’m just picking on you. Of course, you’ll be a good boy. You sort of owe it to me after stabbing me in the gut earlier.”

Slowly he teased out the knot with his fingertips, and as soon as the last loop came undone, Kenny spat the gag out with a low growl.  Uri brushed his hand through the other man’s long dark hair and wrapped the strands tightly around his fingers.

“I told you not to come after me again,” he said.  “Did you really miss me that much?”

“You fucker,” Kenny snapped, his lip twisting in anger, “you fucking used me.”

“You offered, but not only did you offer, you verbally consented and told me what you wanted me to do.  In no way, shape, or manner did I use you.  I can’t control your mind like I can any other person, so don’t act like I forced you to do anything.” Uri shrugged.  “You’re just angry that I didn’t allow you to murder me afterward.”

Kenny’s cheeks flushed brightly.  “I… I didn’t think…” He wrinkled his nose.  “You… I didn’t think… I mean…”

“You’re going to have to use your big boy words, Ackerman,” Uri said, tugging Kenny’s hair roughly.  “I can’t understand you when you stutter.”

“I didn’t think you wouldn’t kill me,” Kenny gasped, arching his neck, when Uri pulled his glossy black locks.  “Aren’t you supposed to be a fucking monster?  Why are you being kind to me and allowing me to live?”

The dark heart inside of Uri’s chest thudded with a dull pain.

“Heh… who ever said I was kind?” Uri huffed.  “Maybe the kind thing to do would be to kill you.  After all, this is a cruel world.”

Kenny turned his head slightly and gazed at Uri.  “I don’t think you really think that.  You wouldn’t have let me go the first time if you weren’t kind. Maybe you’re an idiot, though.”

“You’re quite outspoken for having been defeated twice.”

“You told me to use my big boy words, and I’m gonna say what’s on my fucking mind.”

“Okay… tell me. Tell me exactly what’s on your mind.”

Kenny breathed in sharply.  “I didn’t know what you were.  I didn’t realize that there were Titans inside the walls.  I didn’t know… I didn’t even think that there was someone stronger than me.”

Uri wavered slightly at Kenny’s words, but then he strengthened his resolve. “Don’t attempt to flatter me. I’m not playing games any longer.”

“I’m not flattering you.  Even if you used me during our last encounter, I can’t ignore your strength. I don’t mean just physical strength either—I mean, you… you on the inside.”  Kenny bit his busted lip.  “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand. I guess if the common people knew about you…”

“…They wouldn’t understand,” Uri sighed.  “You’re not wrong.  The Reiss family tried to kill the Ackermans because their memories couldn’t be altered. The patriarch of your family—your great-grandfather, likely—had been born outside the walls. If I recall correctly, he had sacrificed himself to prevent the spread of his own knowledge to his family… but that hadn’t been enough for my grandfather or father.”

“I don’t know anything else,” Kenny blurted.  “I only know that… He was being honest when he said he didn’t tell anyone what he knew.  My grandfather would have told me.  He told me everything else.”

“Hmmm, I see.”  Uri released Kenny’s hair from his grip and walked in front of him.  “That doesn’t change the fact that you know something you really shouldn’t know. Unfortunately, the only way to prevent you from ever telling anyone is to kill you.”

Kenny recoiled visibly, his eyes widening.  “Heh… right.  That’s true. I could tell you that I won’t tell anyone, but that would depend on how much you trust me.”

“Yes, I would have to trust you.”  Uri crossed his arms, his cloak hugging tightly to his shoulders.  “What could you possibly do to make me trust you?”

“I’ll tell you who hired me,” he muttered.  “The council of northern Sina.  All of those old bastards wanted to eliminate you because you won’t share your knowledge or whatever.  They didn’t see the point in keeping around some guy with all the knowledge of the outside world if he didn’t plan on doing anything with it.”  He glanced down at his lap.  “Is that true?  You have knowledge of the world before the walls but you can’t do anything about it?”

Uri nodded, his blonde hair falling across his eyes.  “Yeah, that’s true.  So… all of the northern council wants me dead.  I suppose I understand.”

“So do you trust me now?  It’s not like I can go back to them after I told you that I work for them.”

“No, I don’t trust you.  You can’t undo years of strife between our families by just telling me who hired you and promising with empty words that you’ll stop trying to kill me.”

Kenny blanched and stared back at Uri.

“What is it that you want from me?” he asked pointblank.

Uri could have said exactly what was on his mind.  Uri could have told him that he wanted to undress him from those dirty clothes and do all the things that would keep a man awake at night. From the look in his gray eyes, Kenny seemed to expect it, even seemed to anticipate it.  Uri held his breath and suppressed all his sinful thoughts. He was a kind man, after all…

Uri nodded. “You owe me your life after trying to take mine.  If you expect me to allow you to live, you’ll dedicate your heart to protect me from future assassins.”

Uri had expected Kenny to argue with him, to spit venom, to curse his family’s name, to read him the riot act, to do anything really but agree.  Instead, Kenny nodded.

“Okay,” he spoke, “then I’ll dedicate my heart.  I’ll fucking prove it to you.  What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to kill the men who hired you,” Uri answered almost too quickly. “If you do that, then even my brother would have to trust you.”

“I’ll do it. I’m supposed to meet with them tomorrow.”  Kenny pressed against his bonds and curled his lip uneasily.  “So now that we’ve made a deal, you’re going to untie me, right?”

Uri smirked. “Oh, I don’t know about that. This late at night, all of my servants have returned to their quarters in the main house.  I’m alone in this villa with a much bigger, stronger man… I shouldn’t let my guard down, you know.”

Kenny narrowed his eyes.  “Well, you don’t have to be a fucking jerk about it.  At least untie me from this chair and let me lie down or something.”

“Heh, am I really being so unkind, not trusting the man who has tried to kill me twice so far?” Uri snatched Kenny’s chin and bent down to peer into his face.  His thumb brushed across the captive’s swollen bottom lip.  “Now, I don’t think that’s fair to me, calling me a jerk.”

“St-stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

Gritting his teeth, Kenny snapped back, “If you’re going to do something, you may as well go ahead and do it!”

“Oh, is that an open invitation?”

“Yes!” Suddenly, the dark-haired man blushed. “I mean… it’s not like I need you to do anything…”

“Oh, I see. Heh.  You’re a tease, you know.”

Uri had reached his limit, no longer able to keep his hands off of this beautiful man, completely helpless to his touch.  Greedily, Uri kissed him, and Kenny gasped when their lips met. At first, the captive resisted and wriggled beneath him, but after a moment, his mouth relaxed against Uri’s lips. Straddling the chair, Uri nudged Kenny’s lips apart as his tongue explored the warmth of his mouth. As their kiss deepened, their teeth scraped against each other’s, their tongues entwined.  Feeling the heat grow in his belly, Uri pulled himself away. For now, he had to hold back and maintain control of the situation.

Kenny’s breath hitched in his throat as his eyes smoldered.  “Go ahead… untie me.  I’ll make it worth your time.”

“Didn’t you promise to attack me next time in my sleep?” Uri asked with a smirk.

“Heh… figures that you would remember that out of all the things I spouted off earlier.”

Uri trailed his hands across Kenny’s chest and to his shoulders. “Maybe if you’re lewd enough, I won’t be able to resist untying you and taking you to bed with me.”

“Just maybe?” Kenny pushed back his shoulders and pressed his muscular chest against the king.  “I don’t know… your touch is already burning hot.”  He leaned close to Uri and purred in his ear. “Are you really going to be able to hold yourself back, Lord Reiss?”

Uri shuddered at Kenny’s voice, breathy in his ear.  Turning him on like that wasn’t fair, especially when he knew he couldn’t do anything, not without putting himself at unnecessary risk. Kenny would have to pay for that. Uri reached up and tugged hard on Kenny’s hair, forcing his head back.  With a loud gasp, Kenny arched his back and struggled against Uri’s grip.

“Was that too lewd for you?” he choked.

“Heh, that was unfair to use my title like that.  You know I get off on authority and status.”  Darkness began to cloud his vision.  “For your information, by the way, I can hold myself back as long as I want.”  Uri rose to his feet, still straddling the edge of the chair.  “You’ll be the one begging for more, begging to come to bed with me, begging me to fuck you.”

“You get off on authority.  That’s the understatement of the fucking century.”  Kenny grinned uneasily.  “You know you can’t get into my head this way.  Does that bother you that you can’t control me, your fucking highness?”

“On the contrary, it’ll be much more satisfying when you do everything that I ask of you. Ackermans’ toughness and pain tolerance is infamous, but I don’t think they can take pleasure like they can take pain.”

“Oh, is that right?”  Kenny shifted against the ropes, twisting his hips.  “I can take quite a bit of pain, you know.”

“Is that an invitation to inflict it?”

“I think it’ll be too much for you.  You’ll be tearing off those ropes and dragging me to your bed if you do.” With a smirk and the roll of his eyes, he moaned loudly.  “Ohhh, Lord Reiss, you want me, don’t you?”  Then he cackled.  “Drop the façade. I’m the one with the power here. You’ll always want me more than I could ever want you.”

“I feel like that’s a challenge.”

“You fucking know it.”

“Okay,” Uri sighed, tightening his grip on Kenny’s hair.  “Then I accept.  I’ll only untie you when you beg.  If you don’t beg, then I’ll leave you to your own devices.”

“Yeah… okay. And I’ll wait until you can’t hold yourself back any longer.  You’ll untie me of your own accord.”

“We’ll just have to see, won’t we?”  Uri leaned close to Kenny’s face and licked up his sharp jaw.  “You think you’re in control now?  Just wait.  Five minutes is all I need to turn you into a puddle.”

“Five minutes then.”

Without wasting another moment, Uri kneeled down on the chair with his knees between Kenny’s thighs, spread and bound to the arms of the chair. With his free hand on his captive’s thigh, the muscles tightening at his touch, he pressed his lips to Kenny’s neck just below the ear.  His teeth scraped gently across the hot flesh, salty on his tongue.  Kenny shuddered and held his breath as Uri kissed down his neck and to his collarbone.

“I won’t judge if you moan,” the king whispered.  “In fact, I would appreciate it.”

Kenny’s cheeks flushed as he tugged against Uri’s grip on his hair. “It doesn’t feel that good…”

“Oh, no? Tch, that’s too bad…”

Tightening his grip on Kenny’s thigh, Uri gently pressed his teeth to the well-defined trapezius muscle and sucked lightly.  Kenny inhaled sharply and winced slightly, the pupils of his gray eyes dilating.  After a short moment, Uri clamped his jaw down and sunk his teeth into the flesh, enough to leave small pinpricks of blood where his canines pierced the skin. Even when Kenny squirmed, he held firm and sucked hard, the skin now blotchy and red.

“Ahhh, Uri…!” Kenny gritted his teeth and buckled his hips.  “That feels…”

“Good?” Uri whispered as he pulled back.  He nuzzled the teeth marks with his nose.  “You like it?”

“Yeah… so don’t do that.”

“Heh, cute. You really don’t take much to work up.”

“It’s not like that…!”

With a chuckle in his throat, Uri tongued Kenny’s jutting collarbone before pressing his teeth into the flesh of his shoulder, this time biting harder. When he sucked, Kenny struggled to arch his back and stifled a moan, the ropes chafing his body where he pressed against them.  After a moment, Uri released his handful of hair and smirked.

“Are you normally so flushed?” he asked, brushing his fingers across Kenny’s cheeks, down the front of his throat, and to the top of his chest, peeking out from his button-up shirt.  “Maybe if you let out your voice, you may be a bit relieved…”

“I’m fine,” Kenny grunted through his clenched teeth.

“Oh, I see.”

Uri undid two of the buttons of Kenny’s shirt and kissed the firm pectoral right above where the ropes crossed his chest.  With his tongue he lapped up the sweat, beading on his reddened skin. When his teeth scraped against the flesh gently, Kenny jumped and shuddered, his breath escaping his throat. Excitement fluttered in Uri’s belly.

“Are you really that sensitive?”

“N-no!” The taller man shook his head vehemently.  “I told you—it’s not like that…”

“Heh, I think it is like that.”

When Kenny opened his mouth to protest, Uri bit down hard on the pectoral and sucked. His shoulders shook, and his chest rose rapidly with his breaths, pressing him more firmly against Uri’s teeth. When he still didn’t moan like the short blonde recluse had wanted, Uri nudged aside the rope and gently teased one of his nipples, already hard and poking through the white fabric of the shirt.  Kenny chewed on his bottom lip, but finally he moaned loudly, his cries filling the drawing room. Delight filled Uri’s eyes as his stomach twisted.

“Go ahead and beg me,” he demanded, muttering into Kenny’s chest.  “Beg me for release.”

“Go to hell…” Kenny leaned his head back and knotted his brow.  “Not until you beg me first.”

Smirking and still rubbing the one nipple, Uri nudged his knee between Kenny’s legs and pressed it to his crotch lightly.  Kenny whimpered and twitched, his hips twisting, when gently Uri brushed his free hand down the inside of his thighs, stopping where his knee touched. His hand traced around the most sensitive spot, his fingers trailing up the hip joint, underneath the untucked shirt, and to his powerfully built abdominals.  He lifted the shirt and pinned it underneath the ropes to better admire his captive’s impressive musculature.  As he touched, Kenny’s noises crescendoed, his hips rocking harder as his voice grew louder.  Inside, Uri quivered with desire, desperate for the man, trussed up, before him, but he couldn’t allow any show of weakness.

“Beg,” he urged.  “If you don’t start begging, then I won’t hear your pleas later.”

Kenny knotted his dark brow and puffed up his red cheeks.  “I told you… You’ll give in first.  I can take anything you dish out.”

“Oh?” Uri whispered, kneeling down and pressing his lips to the jutting pelvic bone right above the waistband of Kenny’s pants.  He nipped hard, leaving more teeth marks.  “I wonder what might happen if you don’t give in? I won’t give in, so that’s not even a question.  I guess then I would just have to satisfy my own desire if you don’t beg me to untie you and to bring you back to bed with me.”

“You wouldn’t…”  Kenny pressed his shoulders back against the chair and rolled his hips forward. “You’re not going to leave me here like that…”

“Oh, didn’t you learn not to challenge me at this point?”  Uri sat upright and tugged his cloak up and over his head, and the dark fabric slinked into a pile at Kenny’s bound feet. He reached down and touched the front of his pants, his erection throbbing beneath his touch. His eyes, clouded with shadows, locked onto Kenny’s gaze.  “I told you to beg. Be a good boy, and I’ll reward you.”

“Tch… I wouldn’t deign to beg,” Kenny gasped, his face turning to scarlet.

“What happened to you begging me to let you go earlier?”

“You were going to fucking kill me!”

“Oh, so you’ll only beg if you might die.  I wonder if you’ll feel like you might die if I don’t get you off.”

“You bastard, you wouldn’t…”

“Why do you keep challenging me when you know that I will?”  With one hand, Uri unbuttoned his pants and slid out his cock. He curled his lip as he licked the palm of his hand.  “Last chance, Kenny Ackerman… Beg me.”

Kenny chewed on his swollen lower lip and shook his head.  Uri sighed.

“You’re only tormenting yourself,” the blonde muttered.  “Fine.  Suit yourself.”

Bracing his free hand against the back of the chair, Uri pressed his lips to Kenny’s neck and rubbed himself firmly.  Already, his belly churned feverishly.  Something about being unable to force this man under his control burned up his insides.  Completely overwrought, he sucked hard on Kenny’s neck, leaving a splotchy welt, well above the collar of his shirt.  Kenny gasped, his breath hitching in his throat.

“You’re not seriously just going to jerk yourself off and leave me tied up, right?” he breathed.  “If you untie one of my arms, I’ll do it for you…”

“I’m quite alright doing it myself,” Uri answered, scraping his teeth down to Kenny’s chest. He tugged aside the white button-up and pulled down the rope to expose all of the pectoral. His lips brushed across the stiff nipple, causing Kenny to jump.  “If you won’t indulge my ego, then I’ll indulge myself.”

“I never said I didn’t want you—“ Kenny recoiled at his own words and looked away. “I mean…”

A small sadistic smile spread across Uri’s lips and reached up into his dark eyes. His grip on himself tightened.

“Tell me everything,” he whispered.  “Tell me how much you want me.  If you do, I’ll think about untying you.”

Kenny opened his mouth to speak but he only moaned when Uri dragged his tongue across his nipple, sensitive from the chafing of the rope.  His hips quaked, shaking the chair slightly. Uri sucked hard, his teeth sinking in to the firm flesh.  Already his cheeks swelled, his head spun, and his hips thrusted against his own grip. Blushing, Kenny gazed down at Uri’s cock, dripping with precum.

“I want it, okay?” he whimpered.  “Come on… just untie me…”

“How much do you want it?” Uri grunted.  “Tell me…”

Kenny bowed his head and bit his lip sharply.  “Please, touch me…”

“Can you not answer my question first?”

“I fucking need you to touch me right now, or I swear that I will kill you.”

“That much?” Uri snickered. “I don’t know…”

“Uri, please!”  Kenny’s eyes swam with delirium.  “Just do it…”

“I think I prefer to leave you like this as punishment for attempting to murder me today,” the blonde whispered.  “I think that’s fair.”

“N-no, it’s not!”

When Kenny struggled against his bonds and muttered incoherently under his ragged breath, a bubbling sensation swirled through Uri’s insides. Stroking himself faster, Uri trailed his free hand down Kenny’s chest, over his abdominals, and across the front of his pants.  Kenny gulped for air as Uri teased his hard-on through the fabric.

“Please, I want to feel good, Uri…”

“This is your punishment,” he answered breathily.  “If you’re a good boy, I’ll reward you in the future, but I don’t reward bad behavior.”

“I promise, I’ll be good…”

“That’s not good enough, and you know it,” Uri grumbled, biting down again on Kenny’s pectoral.  His tongue lapped at the nipple.  “Accept your punishment for what it is.  You’ve been a bad boy.”

“Fuck you, fucking sadistic bastard…”

Kenny gritted his teeth and whimpered, his cheeks scarlet, his hips quivering beyond his control.  At this point, his hands had curled tightly around the arms of the chair, his knuckles completely blanched. Uri couldn’t be sure if his gray gaze was glossy with hatred or overwhelming desire.  Pressure built within his cock, nearly ready to blow. The smile on his lips and the darkness in his eyes amplified with each passing moment as ecstasy swam in his brain. He braced his free hand against Kenny’s shoulder and glanced down at the other man’s finely carved abdominals, still exposed.

“You’re mine,” he panted.  “Say it, Kenny. You’re mine.”

“Fuck you,” Kenny hissed.  “I’m not going to say that…”

“Say it… Say it, or I’ll punish you more.  Be a good boy.” Uri scraped his teeth across the nipple again.  “Say it, or I won’t allow you to sleep tonight.”

Kenny arched his back and pressed against Uri’s touch.  “Okay, okay, I’m yours…!”  He whined with pleasure and wiggled his hips.  “Please, just don’t tease me any more… I can’t stand it…!”

Every muscle in his body tensed as Uri pushed himself over the edge. Euphoria washed over him, and his hips buckled and convulsed.  His cock pulsed beneath his grip, spurting hot, sticky cum upon Kenny’s exposed abdominals.  As he came, he bit down hard on Kenny’s shoulder with enough pressure to pierce the skin, forcing a small yelp from the other man.  With a gasp, Uri crumpled against Kenny, who still wriggled beneath him.

“Good boy,” Uri murmured into the mouthful of muscle.  Blood trickled onto his tongue.  “You were such a good boy…”

“Please don’t leave me like this,” Kenny whispered.  “Take me back to bed with you…”

Shaking slightly, Uri pushed away from Kenny and sat back on his heels. He licked his teeth and took in the sight of the other man, helplessly bound.  His shirt partially undone, the skin of his chest had reddened from the chafing of the ropes and the teasing of Uri’s mouth and fingertips. Uri’s cum dripped down Kenny’s well-defined abdominals, trickling into the lines of the muscle. Uri smirked and nudged Kenny’s erection, caged by the fabric of his tight pants.  He clicked his tongue when Kenny jolted against his touch.

“If I conceded, what would be the point of trying to punish you?” he asked. Slowly, he stood upright and fixed his own pants.  “Be grateful that I gave you as much as I did.”

Kenny shook with anger and arousal.  “You fucking bastard… don’t you fucking leave me like this.”  His lip twisted as panic crossed his eyes. “I might die.  I really might die.”

“You’re not going to die,” Uri said, picking up his cloak and slinging it over his shoulder. “I don’t believe any cause of death for any human has ever been being taken to the edge but not over it.” He shrugged and smiled deviously. “I would know. I’ve seen a lot.”

“At least wipe up your fucking mess.”

“What’s the point of marking you if I’m just going to clean it immediately?” Uri chuckled.  “No, I’m going to leave you like that, and you’ll have a lot of time to think about what I’m going to do to you in the morning.”

Kenny held his breath.  “The morning…? What are you going to do then?”

Uri raised his blonde brow and turned toward the door.  “I’ll let your imagination run wild on that one,” he purred. “Have a good night, and sleep well, okay?”

“W-wait!” Kenny cried out, flailing against the ropes, the heavy chair rocking unsteadily. “Please, Uri, I need—“

Uri slammed shut the door behind him, trapping Kenny’s voice in the drawing room. He breathed out sharply as his knees wobbled beneath him, and an electric sensation filled his body. Uri couldn’t be sure what had taken over him just now.  The lewd, sadistic thoughts, swimming in his head, shouldn’t have been on the mind of a kind man. Then again, after today, Uri wasn’t so sure if he was a kind man any more.  He curled his lip inward.  He would make it up to Kenny tomorrow.

The next morning, Kenny dedicated his heart and body to the king.  Then, without a second thought, he met and killed the men who had wanted Uri dead.


	3. Rebirth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that he has dedicated his heart, mind, and body to Uri, Kenny must cope with his conflicting feelings about serving the king and the family who persecuted the Ackermans. Despite his grandfather's condemnation, he genuinely believes his actions will save future generations of Ackermans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *whisperscreams* i'M SORRYYYYYY~~
> 
> Feels ahead. More plot than porn.
> 
> I messed with the timeline a bit, but this has always been alternate canonverse.

“Where the fuck was ya, boy?  Your gramps thought you was dead when ya didna come home last night.”

With his hand still on the water pump, Kenny paused and looked over his shoulder at the farmhand Jerome.  Over the years, all of the other farmhands had either mysteriously disappeared or fled before they met the same fate except for this weathered, bald old man, who had been Gramps’ only friend for as long as Kenny could remember.  Now Jerome gazed at Kenny with stormy eyes, his arms crossed tightly across his brawny chest.  With a scowl, Kenny spun away and continued to pump water into a large steel bucket. Pain shot through his lower back with each little movement.

“Nowhere special,” he grumbled.  “I just got carried away.  Didn’t notice the time. It won’t happen again.”

“Nowheres special?”  Jerome eyed the bandages, wrapped tightly around Kenny’s forearms and peeking out from beneath the cuffs of his shirt.  “You was’a rippin’ again, wasn’t ya?”

Images flashed through Kenny’s mind’s eye—the men of the council perishing one by one, their throats spilling crimson, their pleas falling on deaf ears. He furrowed his brow.

“You could say that.”

“Well, ya know ya gramps ain’t got long in this world.  Ya need to sit wit’ him for a while today.”

Kenny picked up his steel bucket, grimacing when pain shot through his hips. “Yeah, yeah, fucking hell, I got it. I gotta take a bath first though.”

“Yeah, no shit, boy.  Ya got the smell o’ death on ya.”  The farmhand continued on his way to the barn and waved idly.  “At least tell me when ya plan on being gone again.  I don’t work for free.”

Kenny heaved the bucket of water into the farmhouse.  As he dumped the water into the tub in the middle of the bathroom, his stomach churned at the thought of talking to his grandfather.  How was he supposed to explain that he had agreed to work for the family that had all but eliminated the Ackerman clan inside the walls? After all, Gramps had known that he had left to assassinate Uri Reiss the day before.  For months, that old man had been clinging to life with the hope that his grandson would avenge their family name, but Kenny feared that this would be the straw that broke his back.

The breeze, coming through the open window, was brisk against Kenny’s hot skin as he fumbled to remove his dirty, bloodied clothing.  Wincing from the pain of undressing, he threw his ruined clothes in a pile and slithered into the tub.  With a sigh, he leaned back into the cool porcelain, his neck arching over the edge, his eyes on the ceiling.  He touched the bandages on his arms and loosened the knot, unfurling the wrap from his arms and his chest, the skin abraded by the ropes around him all night. Shaking, his hands splashed lukewarm water over the chafing and the teeth marks, a reminder of Uri’s touch.

He ran his fingers along the broken skin from the bite on his pectoral. He couldn’t quite define what it was about Uri Reiss that had made him abandon all thoughts of killing him. Kenny had never anticipated that his target would really be a fucking Titan.  When the council had divulged the information on how to find Uri, had they known about the monster within the unassuming recluse? His chest tightened painfully. Perhaps they had counted on Kenny’s rage and bloodlust to be enough.  Perhaps they had knowingly sent him toward certain death.  They hadn’t seemed to expect him at the meeting this morning. Kenny must have been special, because one councilmember’s last words were that a Reiss had never allowed an assassin to live before.  He shook his head and pushed the thoughts out of his mind.

Without wasting any more time, Kenny cleaned his wounds and washed himself before rising from the tub and drying off.  The crisp, fresh clothes were cool against his irritated skin as he tugged them onto his sore body.  When he checked his appearance in the mirror, a welt peeked up above the collar of his shirt. He grimaced but figured Gramps was too old to notice something like that.

Of course, it was the first thing Gramps mentioned when he handed the old man his late lunch.

“Is that a hickey on your neck?” he asked as he sat up and took the tray of stew and bread into his lap.

“What?” Kenny slapped his hand over his neck and grimaced.  That old man’s sight was still as sharp as ever, even on his deathbed.  “Ah, no, that’s, uh… that’s just where I got hit pretty hard.”

“Oh.” Gramps signaled toward the chair at his bedside.  “Sit. I want to talk to you about what happened yesterday.”

“Heh, fine.” Kenny plopped down in the chair, its wooden legs scraping loudly against the floor.  He shifted his sore hips into a more comfortable position and folded his arms against his chest.  “I mean, it’s not a big deal that I wasn’t here last night, right? Jerome took care of you, and you aren’t exactly helpless—“

Gramps’ eyes, as fierce and as gray as his grandson’s, darted to Kenny. His bearded, wrinkled face was like stone.  “So you would have been okay had I died in the middle of the night?”

“Goddamn, Gramps, I’m not saying that,” Kenny retorted.  “What the fuck kind of question is that?  If you got a problem, you need to spit it out instead of talking passive-aggressive bullshit.  What’s wrong with you, old man?”

“Yesterday, you flitted out of here, saying you were going to kill the king. Weren’t you bragging about how you had stalked him on his property, how you had staked him out, how you had followed him every day to where he would sit for hours and read books by the river?”

Of course, Gramps only wanted to discuss Uri Reiss.  Gramps wanted to know how Uri had perished beneath his blade, how he might have begged for his life, how his hot blood felt on his hands. Running a hand through his damp hair, Kenny wrinkled his nose and shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah, I guess I might have said that.”

Gramps gazed down at his bowl and swirled his spoon through the stew. “So, you didn’t actually do it. That’s unlike you, Kenny. You must have a very good reason for not killing him—or did you forget that the Reiss family is responsible for my father’s death, your parents’ deaths, Kuchel’s escape to the Underground…?”

“Look, it’s complicated.”

“I got time.” Gramps’ eyes narrowed. “It’s not like you have somewhere to be, right?”

“Well… heh, about that…”  Kenny chomped on his lip and avoided his grandfather’s gaze.  “I can’t kill the king.”

“You can’t, or you won’t?”

“Gramps, you ever seen a Titan before?”  The younger Ackerman slumped in the chair.  “Before I could even reach him, I don’t know… he materialized a Titan’s body and grabbed me up.  He let me go and approached me, and I stabbed him twice.  He healed like it was nothing.  I can’t kill him. It’s impossible.” His eyes flicked to the window, to the ceiling, to anywhere but back at his grandfather. “Did you know that the kings were Titans…?”

Gramps snorted.  “Titans? Didn’t they invent that fancy gear to slay Titans?  Why don’t you just get yourself something like that and kill the bastard?”

“Gramps, you stupid old man, are you even listening to what I’m saying?” Kenny snapped, bolting upright.  “There’s a human who can transform at will into a Titan, who can heal instantaneously. Those soldiers can only kill Titans because normally they’re mindless, but this is a human with intelligence and wit.” His lip twisted into a snarl. “Great-grandpa must’ve known… That’s why they’ve been killing us.  They thought that we knew their secret about the king being a Titan.”

“Well, Kenny, if they’ve been killing us because they thought that we knew the king was a Titan, then how did you get back alive?  Why did the king let you go?”

“Because…” Kenny paused.  His face fell.  “He said he needed me.”

“For what?” Gramps gazed at his grandson. “What use could a Titan king possibly have for some crazy boy who has only spent his whole life killing his soldiers?”

Kenny blushed furiously and bowed his head.  “Well, you said it yourself.  The Ackermans used to be a warrior clan close to the king.  Maybe I can reclaim our family’s standing with the king so that Kuchel doesn’t have to hide in the Underground any more and so her child can eventually live a life without worrying about the Military Police coming to kill him. Isn’t that what I should do?”

“Is that it? You think that the king will allow Ackermans to flourish once more if he has you under his thumb?” Gramps’ gaze turned to contempt. “My father sacrificed himself to the royal family so that Ackermans could live in peace, and look how well that turned out.  Do you think rolling over and showing your belly will change a thing?”  He scoffed.  “Let me guess: that mark on your neck is from your new boyfriend.”

“He’s not my fucking boyfriend!” Kenny barked.

“Oh, so you’re just letting him fuck you, right?  Because I can’t imagine how else you got those hickeys all over your neck and chest.  Shit, I can see them straight through your fucking shirt.”

“What the fuck do you know about anything, old man?”  Kenny rose to his feet, knocking over the chair in the process. He tightened his hands into fists. “It’s not like you’ve ever done anything for this family.  I don’t see you coming up with a solution.  If you had wanted the king to die so badly, you would’ve done it yourself. Don’t you want Kuchel and her child to be able to walk around freely instead of staying Underground?”

“You think I haven’t done anything for our family?”  Gramps weakly pointed out the window.  “I only spent an entire lifetime, preserving what was left to our name. At least I get to die with dignity. All you did was kill every time someone threatened you, and when you couldn’t kill them, you probably cried like a bitch and begged for your life.”

“Watch your fucking mouth, Gramps!”  Kenny leaned over the bed and smacked the tray out of his grandfather’s lap, spilling the bowl of stew on the floor.  “You’ll be lucky if I don’t poison your food next time I bring it.”

“Maybe I’ll die from disappointment before dinnertime.”  Gramps sneered.  “After all, my grandkids are a whore and a faggot.  What dignity does the Ackerman family have left?”

“Go to hell, old man.”  Kenny spun around toward the door.  “No wonder Kuchel left. Maybe once you die, she’ll want to come back to the farm without your smug, righteous ass around.”

“At least my ass hasn’t been touched by the man whose family murdered ours.” Gramps huffed. “Go sleep in the barn for a few nights. I can’t even stand the sight of you right now.  Going to submit yourself to the king… yeah, okay, you do that.  Just undo everything that I spent my entire life doing.”

“You didn’t do anything!” Kenny roared, throwing his fist into the wall as he stormed into the hallway, his voice ricocheting around him.  “Just die already, you useless old man!”

Kenny regretted saying it almost as soon as the words left his mouth, but to immediately apologize wasn’t an option.  He stomped out of the house and to the stable, saddled his stubborn horse, and rode out toward the Reiss estate.  Suppressing every thought that crossed his mind, he arrived at the edge of the estate in little over an hour and at the Reiss family home, a modest manor tucked away in the woods, in another half hour.  Rod, standing on the porch and talking in hushed tones with two local military officials, glared at Kenny as his horse trotted up to the edge of the road. The Military Police followed Rod’s gaze and, panic crossing their eyes when they saw the Ripper, reached instinctively for the pistols at their sides.  Rod clasped their shoulders and pulled them close.  When he whispered something to them, their hands relaxed slightly.

“Uri told me what he wanted you to do,” Rod said, raising his voice. “Seems like you came through with your promise.”  He tilted his head toward the barn.  “Take your horse to the stable boy, and then go see Uri.  Last time I saw him, he was on the porch of his villa, reading.”

Kenny nodded silently and dismounted his horse.  As he led it away to the stable, Rod yelled after him.

“If you hurt my brother, I won’t hold back!” he snapped.  “So don’t think that I’m not watching you.”

After Kenny had handed off his horse to the stable boy, he walked around the main house and to the smaller villa next to it.  On the wraparound porch, he found Uri, reclining on a chaise longue, his book resting on his face.  When he realized that the king was asleep, Kenny reached out to wake him but then stopped, wondering if it were possible to kill Uri in his sleep.  He pushed the thought from his mind as quickly as it had manifested and nudged Uri’s shoulder gently.  At his touch, Uri breathed in sharply and, arching his back and stretching his arms, roused from his nap.  When he propped himself up on his elbows, his cream-colored cardigan fell from his shoulders.  Kenny backed away.

“It’s done,” he muttered, looking away.  “I killed all the men who had wanted you dead.”

“Oh, okay,” Uri yawned, seemingly unfazed by the news of the death of his enemies, like he had heard it too many times before for it to bother him. He patted the place on the chaise longue next to him.  “Lie down with me.”

“I came for business,” Kenny retorted.  “You told me to come back to discuss our arrangement after I had done what I had promised.  Get up, and let’s talk.”

Uri smirked, his smile lines deepening.  He tapped his fingers on the cushion once more.  “Just sit down for a moment.  At least allow me some time to wake up.”

Kenny threw up his hands and flopped down beside Uri.  Admittedly, he would have enjoyed a nap in the shade of the porch in the middle of the afternoon, but he couldn’t afford to let down his guard again.  He jumped and tensed up when Uri grasped his chin and pressed his lips to Kenny’s. After a moment, Uri broke off the kiss and rubbed Kenny’s tight shoulders.

“Relax,” he whispered.  “Do you still think I might hurt you?”

“I didn’t come here for this,” Kenny huffed, furrowing his brow. “I told you that I want to discuss business.”

“Don’t be that way.”  Uri nuzzled Kenny’s neck and nipped gently at his unmarked skin, prompting a shiver down the other man’s spine.  “There’s plenty of time for everything.  Just lie down with me for a while.  Then we can discuss business and maybe have an early dinner.”

“I don’t want to lie down with you right now.  I want to get this discussion over and done with.”

Uri wrapped his arms around Kenny’s chest and tried to tug him down to a reclining position.  “But you’re so cute when you pout like that,” he mumbled into Kenny’s trench coat. “Please, just a few minutes?”

Kenny stood abruptly, but Uri still clung to him.  He arched an eyebrow.

“Come on,” he grumbled.  “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Oh, fine,” Uri sighed.  He stumbled to his feet and fixed his cardigan on his shoulders.  “If you insist, then I’ll have to show you the way to my office.”

Kenny followed Uri into the small villa and to the disheveled office. As Uri took a seat at his desk, piled with paperwork and empty or abandoned teacups, Kenny sneered at the disorganized bookshelf that lined the wall.  He cleared a leather-upholstered chair of more books and took a seat.

“When was the last time you cleaned this room?”

“Oh?” Uri glanced around the office. “I don’t really let anyone in here. I guess I should find some time eventually to clean…”  He shuffled through his paperwork from today and pulled out a crisp folder. “Maybe some time next month, I’ll be able to do it.”

“Yeah… okay.” Kenny leaned forward in the chair and glanced at the stack of papers that Uri had taken out of the folder. “What’s that?”

“It’s the contract that I wrote up,” the blonde man answered.  He nudged the stack across the table.  “I hope you find it satisfactory.  I think it’s fair.  It’s split up into two parts, so be sure to read all of it.”

Kenny scanned through the first half of the contract, unsurprised that it was a formal employment arrangement.  The pay wasn’t exactly optimal, he noted, but he wasn’t in a position to demand any more for killing men.  He grimaced.

“So let me get this straight,” he said after he looked over the first half. “Since the MPs were unable to kill me, you figure that I’d be an effective tool to send after everyone you would normally send the MPs after.”

“Precisely. Honestly, we lost so many men just trying to kill your family, and I’d like to avoid that in the future.” Uri folded his hands on the desk in front of him.  “You don’t have any issue with killing more men, do you?”

“I guess not.”  He set aside the first half of the contract.  “And I assume the second half of this contract is how you want me to be your bodyguard, right?”

Uri’s blue eyes darted toward the window.  “Please, just read it, and then we’ll discuss it.”

“Oh? Okay…”

At the opening sentence of the second contract, Kenny balked.  He shook his head.  He tried to read through it with an open mind, but then he set it aside and glared at Uri.

“What the fuck is this?”

“It’s a contract regarding the terms of our personal relationship,” Uri responded pointblank. “As the king of these walls, I need some protection.  To ensure that you can’t take advantage of me, I wrote that up.”

“You’re assuming that I want anything further to do with you,” Kenny retorted. He ran a hand through his hair, tucked behind his ears.  Admittedly, his heart fluttered in his chest when he thought that Uri fancied him, but he would have never confessed this truth.  “It’s indecent… you shouldn’t ask me to agree to something like this.”

“You wouldn’t have killed those men today if you didn’t want to involve yourself personally with me.”

“What if I just didn’t want to die?”

“Heh.” Uri leaned back into his chair and crossed his legs.  His gaze sharpened upon Kenny. “I could still kill you, you know. If we make a deal where I can’t kill you for just any reason, however…”

Heat wafted off of Kenny’s cheeks.  “I don’t understand any of this.  Just tell me what this contract is trying to tell me.”

“Okay, then I’ll explain the basics.”  Uri reached across the desk and touched the document.  “This contract is good for a year.  After that, we can choose to either renew the contract, or we can terminate our relationship.  However, if you or I terminate the agreement, neither you nor the Ackerman family will have my protection.”

“By that, you mean that I’m both under your protection and in a personal relationship with you, or you’ll send the MPs after me again.”  Kenny didn’t understand the feeling that churned in his stomach. “That doesn’t seem like a very amicable break-up.”

“It’s only fair.  I have to protect myself and my family.”  Uri glanced down at the document once more.  “You’ll make yourself available to me whenever I need or want you. You’ll move in with me by the end of the week, but sooner would be preferable.”

“I can’t do that until fucking Gramps finally kicks the bucket,” Kenny said. “I don’t think that’ll even be by the end of the week.  That old man has been saying he’d be dead within days for about six months now. Ackermans have a way of clinging to life.”

“Oh.” Uri frowned.  By the look on his face, he hadn’t expected to negotiate any of the terms or to waver on any of the points.  “I suppose I could change it to when your grandfather finally passes over.  That’s not too big of a deal if you need to take care of him.”  He crossed out some words and wrote in “after Grandpa Ackerman dies.” “Now this next part… it says that our relationship is public, meaning that it’s not a secret that we’re seeing each other.  All sexual activity, however, must not be discussed with outside parties unless I have approved it.”

“Why would I want to ever tell anybody about that?”  Kenny narrowed his eyes.  “Is that just in case you want to talk about it to your pervert friends?”

“You could say that.”  Uri cleared his throat. “As of now, we will be exclusive in our relationship, so no outside parties will be involved. As well, you may not keep any evidence of our relationship, although I will keep all evidence indefinitely.”

“Blackmail?”

“Well, yeah. You’re a dangerous man. I’m not an idiot.” Uri shrugged his shoulders. “So now that all the basics have been presented, I can get into more specifics.”  He rubbed his lips together.  “I thought you would prefer an owner and pet relationship more to a master and slave dynamic.”

Kenny recoiled at the lewd thought that crossed his mind.  “You want me to act like a fucking dog?”

“Well, no. Not like a dog. I think you’re more suited to acting like a cat.”  Uri smiled sheepishly. “Cats have claws and don’t always follow direction.”

Only Uri had ever been able to make Kenny feel both absolutely disgusted and excited at the same time.  He swallowed nervously and hugged his arms across his chest.  “I mean… I could try it.  I don’t know if I’ll like it.”

“Heh, okay. You know, you end up liking a lot of things you aren’t too sure about at first.”

“It’s not like that at all!” Kenny protested.  His face burned.  “That’s completely different…”

“Heh… cute.” Chuckling under his breath, Uri shuffled the pages and tapped his pen along the document.  “This here covers your requirements.  Basically, you’re expected to show respect at all times to me, my family, my friends, and my associates.  You’ll learn everything else in time as I train you. As for my requirements, I have agreed to take care of all of your needs and wants.  I am responsible for your discipline, training, and punishment, and I will reward you for all good behavior and all jobs well done.”

“It doesn’t sound that far off from a normal relationship, right?” Kenny glanced over the pages. “I mean… I think I could do this.”

“Good.” Uri held out the pen. “Sign, please.”

“Okay…” Kenny took the pen and scrawled his name on the final page.  He handed the pen back to Uri and watched the king scribble his messy signature above his own. “So where do we start?”

Uri tucked the document away into his desk drawer and, reaching farther into the drawer, beckoned Kenny over to him.  Hesitantly, Kenny rose to his feet and walked around the desk, standing awkwardly over the shorter blonde.  Uri curled his lip and indicated toward the floor.

“When you approach me while I am seated, please kneel.  It only makes sense when you’re so tall.”

Blushing furiously, Kenny sank down to his knees.  When Uri took a red leather collar with an attached bell from the desk drawer, he scowled.

“You have to be fucking with me,” he snarled.  “I’m not wearing that.”

“Actually, if you had fully read the contract, one of the first things it says is that you’ll wear your collar at all times unless stated otherwise by me or unless you’re in public.”

“Fucking hell.  Fine. Put it on me then.”

Kenny bared his throat, marked with hickeys and bite marks, and Uri clasped the collar around his neck. When Kenny moved even slightly, the little bell on the collar rang quietly.  He winced at the sound.  Uri patted his head and smiled slightly.

“That’s a good boy,” he cooed.  “Now how about that nap on the porch?  Our business is all done for the day.  I just want to curl up and cuddle with my good boy for a while, at least until dinnertime.”

Kenny didn’t know what possessed him at that moment, but he spoke before he could think too much about it.

“You said you would reward me for a job well done, right?” he stuttered. “Don’t you think I did a good job today? I did everything that you asked of me.”

Uri raised his blonde brow and stroked his thumb across Kenny’s cheekbone. “Oh?  You want to be rewarded already?”  Delight lit up his dark eyes.  “I’ll humor you this once.  Ask of me anything that you would like.”

“Tch, I’m not going to say it…”  Kenny turned his face away.  “Can’t you guess what I might like?”

“I can’t know what my good boy would like unless he uses his big boy words.” Uri brushed his thumb across Kenny’s swollen lower lip, trembling slightly at his touch.  “Don’t be shy.  I can’t give you the proper reward unless you tell me what you would like.”

“I couldn’t,” he muttered.  “It’s lewd.”

“That’s too bad.”  Uri pulled back his hand. “I guess we’ll just have to go nap instead then.”

As Uri moved to rise from his chair, Kenny grasped his thighs and rose up on his knees. “Please suck me,” he begged, clawing at the fabric of Uri’s pants.  “It’s never been done to me before, and I want to know…”

“Oh, is that all?”  Uri chuckled and tapped on his desk.  “Sit here on the edge. Since you’ve been a good boy, I’ll make you feel good this once, and I won’t make you beg.”

Feverishly, Kenny stood to his feet and, stumbling slightly, perched on the edge of the desk in front of Uri.  He breathed in sharply and shuddered when Uri’s fingertips trailed up the insides of his thighs and to his hips.  The king leaned toward him, nudging the hem of Kenny’s shirt up and nuzzling his belly. He kissed the finely carved abdominal muscles and breathed in Kenny’s musky scent.

“What cologne do you use?” he asked.  “You smell good… like leather and pine…”

“I rode horseback for over an hour to get here,” Kenny mumbled.  “It’s not cologne…”

“Oh, is that so?  Your thighs must be sore. Let me help you unwind.”

Uri locked his eyes with Kenny’s as he dragged his fingertips from Kenny’s hips and to the fly of his pants.  His gaze never wavering, he unbuttoned the pants and, looping his fingers around the waistband of his pants and the fabric of his underwear, tugged them down to Kenny’s shaking knees.  Kenny swallowed nervously when Uri kissed down his belly and to the tuft of finely groomed pubic hair. With Uri’s lips in close proximity, his cock began to swell in anticipation.

“Did you trim your pubes for me?” Uri asked, his lips brushing against the root of Kenny’s cock gently.  “I like it.”

“It’s not like I did it for you!” Kenny snapped breathily.  His shoulders shook.  “I can do stuff like that just for myself…”

“You’re cute,” the shorter man whispered.  He pulled his shaggy platinum hair away from his soft face.  “Try to hold still, okay?  I don’t like it when someone starts bucking his hips and tries to face-fuck me.”

Kenny frowned.  “You’ve done this before…?”

Uri raised a blonde brow and curled his lip.  “You really don’t think I’m so inexperienced, do you? The Reiss family isn’t exactly known for its chastity.”

“I mean, I didn’t think the fucking king would have ever sucked off another man before.”

Uri chuckled. “Are you kidding? I love sucking dick.”

“Oh.”

“Just relax, okay?”  He kneaded Kenny’s thighs with his fingertips.  “I’ll take good care of you.”

Maintaining eye contact, Uri tightened his grip on Kenny’s thighs. His breath hot on the other man’s skin, his tongue glided down the length of Kenny’s cock, tumescent beneath the touch. Uri dragged his tongue down the underside of the shaft and up and down again, lubricating his length with saliva. Digging his fingertips into the sensitive flesh of Kenny’s thighs, Uri again looked up at Kenny, delighting in the look of desperation on his face.  His grinning mouth hovered around the cock before his tongue flicked out quickly, only just brushing against the tip.  Kenny breathed in sharply, the bell on his collar jingling quietly.

“Th-that’s enough of that,” he stuttered.  “Just do it…”

“Oh, aren’t we a bit impatient?  Heh, cute.”

Uri’s tongue darted out once more and swirled around the head, collecting the precum that had already gathered there.  Then without wasting another moment, he fit the cock in his warm mouth, his tongue massaging the underside of the shaft.  He wrapped his arms tightly around Kenny’s thighs as he took him in right to the back of his throat.  Kenny’s grip tightened on the edge of the desk, his knuckles turning white. Already the pressure began to build in the base of his spine.

“Uri… that feels really good…”

Flicking his eyes up to Kenny’s, Uri slowly pulled the cock out of his mouth and kissed up and down the length.

“You know, there is a proper way to address me, as covered in that contract,” he whispered. “Please, when in public and during times like this, call me Lord Reiss.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry.”

Uri pinched the soft skin of Kenny’s thigh between his fingers, prompting a quiet yelp from the other man.  He chuckled.

“I’m going to have to teach you better etiquette,” he whispered.  “When you answer in the affirmative, you will say ‘Yes, Lord Reiss.’  Understood?”

“Y… yes, Lord Reiss.”

“Good boy.” Uri shoved Kenny’s chest. “Recline a bit. It’ll make it easier to do what I want.”

Kenny leaned back on his elbows, paperwork scattering beneath his tensed back. “Okay—I mean, yes, Lord Reiss.”

“That’s better,” Uri sighed.  “Now try to hold yourself still.”  His lip curled deviously. “At least try to be a good boy and do the best you can.”

Without wasting another moment, Uri pulled Kenny’s cock into his mouth once more. His tongue rubbed along the underside, already pulsing like a second heartbeat.  Again, he took it in all the way to the back of his throat and held it there for a moment.  Then slowly and later more quickly, he bobbed his head up and down along the length of the cock.  All the while, Kenny watched, his gray eyes blown wide with both intrigue and arousal.

“Th-that feels too good,” he muttered.

Uri smirked and hummed his amusement.  As the other man continued to service his cock, Kenny, propped up on his shaky elbows, moaned quietly.  Slowly, he unfurled and allowed his head to fall back and rest on one shoulder, although he trained one eye on the top of Uri’s head.  A heavy weight sank in his belly, putting more pressure on the bubbling inside of him. His fingernails dug into the desk, scratching the polished surface.  His breath hitched in his throat between his pleasured noises, intensifying with each passing moment.

Kenny heard the opening and closing of the desk drawer by Uri’s right hand, but he didn’t think too much about it.  A moment later, he jumped slightly when Uri prodded his hole with his fingertips, slathered in cool lube.  Kenny opened his mouth to protest but instead a cry escaped his lips when the fingers slid inside of him. Still sucking firmly, Uri curled his fingers and firmly massaged the prostate.  Kenny stiffened his spine to still his quivering hips. He gasped for air desperately.

“Lord Reiss,” he panted, “please get back… I can’t hold back much longer…”

Uri pulled back slightly to speak.  “You have permission to cum,” he mumbled around the cock in his mouth. His tongue swiped across the tip, gathering up the bead of precum that had collected there.  “I’ll swallow.  I’m sure the real thing is just as tasty as the teaser.”

Kenny’s blush spread from his cheeks and burned across his chest. As Uri continued to lick up and down his shaft and to tease his insides, his quaking thighs squeezed against Uri’s shoulders.  His whimpers, stifled slightly by the clenching of his jaw, echoed off the wood-paneled walls. Finally, the pressure, building faster now that Uri touched where it had accumulated, overwhelmed him. As soon as he hit the edge, however, all his tension suddenly released, ecstasy washing over him and flooding his senses. Uri sucked hard on the head of the cock when he orgasmed, slurping up the sticky seed on his tongue. When finally Kenny’s muscles relaxed, still trembling occasionally from the aftershock, Uri pulled back and sat up, cum trickling from the corners of his mouth.

“Good boy,” he cooed.  He slowly slid his fingers out and wiped them carelessly on his pant leg.  He dabbed his sleeve against his lip.  “Your cum is delicious…”

Kenny turned scarlet at his lewd words.  Nervously, he scrambled to pull his pants up to his waist.  With a small smile, Uri assisted him in the endeavor.

“You should thank me for the reward,” he said.  He reached up and tapped the bell on the collar with his fingertips. “It’s only proper.”

“Th-thank you, Lord Reiss,” Kenny stuttered.  Slowly he sat upright.  “Th-that was something else…”

“I’m glad.” Uri buttoned the fly of Kenny’s pants. Then he leaned down and planted a kiss on the skin that peeked above the waistband from beneath his shirt. “Now are you good to nap with me on the porch?”

“Of course.” Kenny nodded.  “I just have to leave at dusk.  Gramps would be pissed if I were away again. I heard enough from that old man already today.”

Uri stood and pushed his chair away from the desk.  “Just curious, but you didn’t happen to mention me or my family to your grandfather, did you?”

“I mean, I told him why you weren’t dead.  He thought I would succeed in killing you.”  Kenny slithered off the desk, his knees still wobbling. “It’s not a big deal, right?”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”  Uri turned his face away.  Kenny nearly thought his eyes had turned to black again.  “You told him that I was a Titan…?”

Panic crossed Kenny’s face.  “Gramps doesn’t have that much longer in this world.  It’s not like he could tell anyone.”  He coughed. “He figured we were fucking and told me to sleep out in the barn for a few nights.  Maybe he’ll regret that when he fucking croaks in the night.”

Platinum hair fell across Uri’s face, hiding all but the unreadable smile on his lips. “It will be okay, I think. Like you said, he doesn’t have much longer in this world.  Then you’ll move in once he’s dead, yeah?”

“Exactly. It’s not an issue.” Kenny touched his head, his brain swimming in his skull.

Uri grasped Kenny’s hand and led him to the door.  He didn’t dare to look back at the taller man.

“So just here ‘til nightfall,” he sighed.  “That’s all the time I need of you today.  Any plans tomorrow?”

“Oh, I’ll be working on the farm, I suppose.”

“That’s not necessary if you’ll be selling it after your grandfather’s death,” Uri said as he tugged Kenny out onto the porch.  “Go ahead and hire a caretaker for the property, and I’ll pay for it.”

Kenny stopped in the doorway and furrowed his brow.  “I’m not selling my family’s farm, even if I don’t live there. You have no right to ask me to do that.”

Uri reclined on the sofa and beckoned him with a smirk.  “Actually, the contract says that everything you own is really my property.”

“Is that even fucking legal?” Kenny muttered as he crossed over to the blonde. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“It’s perfectly legal.  I’m the king, after all.” Uri grasped Kenny by the lapel of his shirt and tugged him down onto the chaise longue.  “I wouldn’t do it unless I had reason, however. As long as you’re a good boy, I won’t have to punish you so severely.”

Kenny smiled nervously and joined Uri on the chaise longue.  Perhaps he should have read that contract on his own before signing it.  Then again, as the king, Uri could probably do whatever he wanted anyway without a legal document. “Right… but I’ll be taking care of the farm anyway until Gramps’ death.  If you want to find someone in the meantime so that they can take over for me during mourning, I’m fine with that.”

Lying on his back, Uri pulled Kenny atop of him and brushed through his hair. “Okay, I’ll do that. Even if there is a contract between us, I don’t ever want to be unnecessarily unfair to you.” He craned his neck to plant a kiss upon the top of Kenny’s head.  “We’ll take it one step at a time.  We’ll move slowly.”

Kenny shuddered at the touch of Uri’s lips on his scalp.  His eyelids fluttered shut.  “Okay.  I’ll trust you for now.”

Throughout the rest of the evening, Uri was uncomfortably quiet.  Even when he took off the red leather collar for safekeeping right before Kenny had left, he didn’t speak much, as if he had been disturbed by something. Kenny had just assumed that perhaps he was upset that it would be a week or so before he could return to the estate. A few days later, Kenny woke up to find Gramps, having passed away in the middle of the night. He might not have been that suspicious about his death had the farmhand Jerome not disappeared without a trace that same day.


	4. Heretic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenny confronts Uri regarding the mysterious circumstances around his grandfather's death. Uri distorts the truth to fit his own agenda. Thinking that he has wrongly accused him of participating in Gramps' death, Kenny submits himself to whatever punishment Uri would like to give.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please see updated tags. Possible triggers (drug use, heavy bondage, discipline/punishment, manipulation).
> 
> I've been bad. So bad. My "research" took me to dark places. *deletes browser history*

Uri had made a contract with Kenny that would require the assassin to kill without flinching anyone he needed out of the way, but he knew that he could have never asked him to kill his own grandfather.  That was why he—or rather, the sadistic bastard that was the coordinate—had asked two of Rod’s men to do his dirty work.  He had figured that they could make the elder Ackerman’s death seem natural, but he hadn’t anticipated that they would encounter the old man’s loyal farmhand. Uri had wished that they had brought the farmhand back to him to erase his memory, but instead they had panicked, killed him, and dumped his body in the river.  He had only hoped that maybe Kenny would be too preoccupied with the death of his grandfather to think about the farmhand’s disappearance.

A week had passed since then, and Uri had left Kenny alone to mourn his grandfather’s passing.  Of course, being an Ackerman, the old man had no real funeral.  When Uri had gone to stalk around the property in secret, he had found the burial ground not too far away from the farmhouse, where most of Kenny’s family had been buried.  It had felt wrong to kneel beside the headstone of the fresh grave and to beg for forgiveness, but Uri had done it anyway.  After all, even as he had prayed there, he had believed himself to be a kind man.

Then, the next day, he stood on the doorstep of the farmhouse.  He had waited there for maybe ten minutes, his clenched fist frozen and unable to knock on the door.  Behind him, the evening sky had opened up, the pattering of the rain echoing in his ears.  When finally he knocked on the door, Kenny answered it only a moment later.  Today he had dressed in a black three-piece suit, as if he had received visitors earlier in the day.  He gazed down incredulously at the royal recluse.

“Why are you here?” he asked pointblank, his knuckles white on the doorframe. “I told you that I would come to you when I was ready.  Can’t you respect some boundaries?”

Uri broke his gaze from Kenny’s eyes and admired his clothes.  He couldn’t help but think that the last Ackerman looked fine in black, contrasting his pale skin.  “I wanted to see you.”

“Well, you saw me,” Kenny retorted, moving to close the door.  “Go home, Uri.  I’m fine on my own out here.  It’s not like I need you right now.”

Uri braced his hand against the door and, struggling against Kenny’s trying to close it, stepped on the threshold.  Kenny bared his teeth and pushed harder, although he couldn’t quite overwhelm the shorter man.

“St-stop!” he snarled.  “What do you think you’re doing…?”

“You should really invite me inside,” Uri said.  He held up a paper shopping bag in his free hand.  “I brought you some food and other things. Do you like steamed dumplings?”

Kenny reached out to snatch the bag out of his hand, but Uri held it out of his grasp. A flustered scowl twisted his face. Finally, he backed away from the door and threw up his hands.

“Fine, come in,” he muttered, “but it’s not like I want you here.”

The heart in Uri’s chest fluttered as he followed Kenny into the farmhouse and down the hallway to the front parlor.  Even though it seemingly hadn’t been used in ages, the small room was immaculately clean. He cleared his throat.

“If you show me to the kitchen, I’ll fix you a proper meal.  You don’t look like you’ve eaten well in days.”

Kenny pointed down the hallway.  “It’s down there to the right.”  He plopped down on the sofa and crossed his arms.  “I don’t know why you’re here.  I’m doing just fine.”

“I’m here because I want to take care of my pet,” he answered frankly. “That’s my responsibility, right?”

Before Kenny could answer, Uri left the room and walked into the kitchen, also small but surprisingly well kept.  He placed the box on the counter, fetched a dish from the cabinet, and plated the warm steamed dumplings.  Then he took out a thermos, hot to the touch, inside of which Uri had steeped some of his favorite black tealeaves in boiling water.  As he poured the tea in a large mug, he thought back to the conversation he had had with Rod earlier that day.

“It’s simple, really,” Rod had said that morning at breakfast. “If you really want him, you’re going to have to force him to leave his family home.  I’ve encountered that type enough to know how to deal with it.”

“Isn’t it selfish to force my will so soon after his grandfather’s death?” Uri had asked. “Shouldn’t I allow him more time?”

“Didn’t you say he had been anticipating the death for months now?” Rod had snorted and rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t need time. If he signed an agreement that said after his grandfather’s death, then hold him to it.  But since he is so stubborn…”  He had reached into his pocket, took out a small packet, and pushed it across the table and into his younger brother’s hand.  “…I recommend using two on an Ackerman.  His natural resistance is likely pretty high.”

Uri hadn’t wanted to accept the packet, but his fingers had wrapped around it and had tucked it away in his pocket.  “You don’t think it’s wrong to do that?”

“No. It’s not like it’s wrong since he previously consented.”

Uri swallowed hard as he stared into the mug, filled with black tea. He tugged out the small packet from his pocket and hesitantly dropped two small tablets into the drink. As they dissolved, he poured a dollop of honey in as well to cover the taste of the pills. With a shaking hand, he swirled a spoon around in the tea to mix up the additives.  When he walked out of the kitchen and into the parlor with mug and plate in hand, Kenny glanced up at him when he approached. With a small smile, he held the meal out to the Ackerman.

“Oh… thanks.” Kenny took the plate and mug from Uri’s hands and set them on the coffee table.  He stared curiously at the tea.  “What is this?”

Uri froze. Could Kenny have seen that the tea had been tampered with?

“Wh-what do you mean?”

Kenny rubbed his lips together.  “Is this tea?”

“Yes… why?”

“I’ve never had tea before.”

Uri laughed nervously.  “Oh, I mean, I thought you might like it.”

Kenny sipped the tea and nodded contently.  Uri let out a sigh and collapsed on the sofa beside him as Kenny set aside the mug and tucked into his steamed dumplings.  For a few minutes, they sat in silence, only broken by the pattering of the rain outside. Even when the sky clouded over and the room darkened, Kenny didn’t move to turn on the lamp next to him.

“Have you spoken at all to the caretaker that I hired?” Uri asked, leaning back stiffly against the cushions.  “Last time I checked in with him, you hadn’t said anything to him.”

“He seemed to have figured it out,” Kenny muttered, setting aside the plate of half-eaten dumplings.  He picked up the mug and drank from it.  “It’s not like Jerome left a lot of stuff to do.  He was pretty old himself.”  His thumb traced along the rim of the cup.  “I wouldn’t be surprised if he had fallen in the river and drowned.”

Uri held his breath.  “I’m sorry to hear about your farmhand.  It’s unfortunate that he disappeared the same day your grandfather died.”

“Unfortunate. Yeah.”  Kenny took another sip of tea.  “He didn’t really care for me.  Maybe he thought that I wasn’t worth staying around for after Gramps was gone.  I can’t say I blame him.”

Uri darted his gaze toward the window, streaked with cold rain. Guilt squeezed his heart. “So why are you dressed in a suit? Did you receive visitors earlier today?”

Kenny crossed his legs and shifted his weight.  “No one came.  Gramps had friends at one point, but again, they didn’t really care for me.”  He smirked bitterly.  “But a man should always dress his best just in case.  A sharply dressed man commands respect.  It’s what I would teach to…”  He suddenly fell silent, and Uri wasn’t sure why.  “…Heh, it’s not like I’ll ever have any kids to teach how to act. After all, I’m the last Ackerman. There’s nobody left.”

“Why do you say that…?”

“No reason.” Kenny shook his head and gulped the tea. “You know, I’ve never had tea before. It’s pretty good.”

“I’m glad you like it.”  Uri hugged his arms tightly across his chest.  “Drink it while it’s still hot.  Don’t let it get cold.”

“Oh, okay.” Kenny placed the mug to his chapped lips.  “Do you have more, or is this all you brought?”

“I didn’t bring any more, but I can always make you more tea at home.”

“Oh.” At this point, Kenny had finished half of the mug of tea.  “You may as well not avoid the subject any longer.  You told me last week that you would come for me soon.  That’s why you’re here, right?”

“I guess you figured me out.  I’m here to bring you home with me.  It’s not right to leave you out here alone when you don’t have to be by yourself.”

Uri flinched, expecting him to protest, but instead Kenny nodded and set the mug on the coffee table.  He reached out and squeezed Uri’s hand.  Uri couldn’t quite tell if it were relief or resignation that crossed Kenny’s stormy eyes.

“Okay,” he whispered.  “I packed my bag already.  I’ll go get it while you clean this mess.”

Once Kenny got up and left the room, Uri panicked silently.  The drugs hadn’t been in Kenny’s system long enough to have made him agree so readily to leave.  He clutched his face with shaking hands, peeking through his fingers with wide eyes. Why had he listened to Rod? Why had he accepted the chemical help? His heart rammed against his ribcage at the thought of what might happen once Kenny figured it out. He grabbed up the mug and plate and rushed into the kitchen.  Chattering his teeth, he scraped the food off the plate and poured out the remainder of tea.

“Fucking idiot,” Uri scolded himself, “you didn’t have to do it… Why weren’t you more confident?  Why didn’t you know it wouldn’t be an issue?  Moron…”

When he heard Kenny’s quiet footsteps behind him, Uri spun on his heels to face him. Kenny stood in the doorway, his small suitcase in one hand and a black fedora clutched in the other. The blonde man smiled nervously and put away the mug and plate before crossing over to his beau. He knew he only had a few minutes before the drugs hit Kenny like a tidal wave.

“Is that all you need?” he asked as he pushed past Kenny.  “There’s nothing else here that you want?”

“I don’t own a lot,” Kenny answered, following Uri to the front door. He blushed.  “You know, I was thinking about what you said, about selling this place…”

“I’m not going to force you to do that.”

“Well, no, but I thought maybe I could rent it out.  Keep myself as the owner, but you know, someone pays me while they live here.”

Uri opened the front door of the farmhouse and walked onto the porch. For a moment, he and Kenny stood there, the rain misting around them, until through the thick darkness Uri spotted the lantern on his carriage as it pulled up to the step. The driver stepped down from his perch, opened an umbrella, and held open the door of the carriage. Uri entered first, and after the doorman took his suitcase, Kenny donned his hat and stumbled in after him. Dizzily, the taller man fell into his seat as the door slammed shut behind him.

“This rain must be messing me up,” he muttered.  He tilted his head back and breathed deeply.  “My head is killing me…”

Uri jumped as the carriage moved.  “Oh, I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”  Kenny leaned against the door of the carriage.  The heat of his forehead fogged the cool window.  “I just haven’t been outside since I buried Gramps.”  His shoulders trembled.  “You know, I’m not an idiot.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Heh.” Kenny’s laugh unnerved Uri. “I told you, I’m not a fucking idiot. I know that your brother’s people killed him.  It wasn’t like they covered it up very well.  I saw the welts on his neck from where they choked the life out of him.  I found Jerome’s body, washed up on the shore of the river. Did you really think you could fool a killer?”

Uri opened his mouth to speak, but Kenny had already turned on him. Impossibly fast, the Ackerman had drawn his knife from his jacket and pinned the king against the bench. Uri shuddered when he felt the cold steel against the back of his neck, hovering at the nape. A wild look flashed in Kenny’s eyes, and his lip pulled back in a vicious snarl.

“I should fucking kill you,” he hissed.  His body, pressed tightly to Uri, quaked, and his hands wavered.  “I don’t know why I should allow you to live after what you’ve done. Your weak spot is the nape of the neck, just like a Titan, right?”

Uri gulped. “I set you free from your past life. You no longer hold any loyalty to the Ackerman clan if you’re the only one left.  Admit it—you’re relieved that he’s dead, aren’t you?”

“That’s not the fucking point!”  Kenny’s breath caught painfully in his throat.  “You said that my family was under your protection, didn’t you? You said that Ackermans could live in peace, right?  Why didn’t you just let him die in fucking peace, you sick son of a bitch?”

“I don’t know why,” Uri admitted, his voice barely a whisper.  “I don’t know why, but that was just how it had to be.” His eyes quickly turned to onyx. “It was better that way.”

Kenny hesitated when he saw the darkness in Uri’s eyes.  “Uri, you weren’t the one who needed him dead, were you? It was that fucking monster inside of you, wasn’t it?”  The knife slipped from his grasp as his eyes welled with tears.  “How the fuck am I ever supposed to trust you if I keep losing you to that sadistic son of a bitch?”

When finally his façade broke, Kenny collapsed weakly against Uri and screamed furiously into his chest, his cries muffled by the thick fabric of Uri’s coat. For a moment, Uri sat motionless until finally he wrapped his arms around the larger man and pulled him close. When Kenny could not scream anymore, he sobbed angrily, soaking Uri’s shoulder with his tears. Silently, tears streamed down Uri’s cheeks.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered to Kenny.  “I don’t know why.  I don’t know why I did it. I don’t know why this world is so cruel. I don’t know anything, but I’m supposed to know everything.  You’re right that I’m a sick son of a bitch.”  He gritted his teeth and bowed his head.  “I want to be better.  I want to be a kind man. I want to be someone you could love.”

“What makes you think I could ever love you?” Kenny roared, suddenly pushing himself away. He bared his teeth and backed away against the door of the carriage.  “I could never love you.  That’s why you backed me into a corner.  That’s why you made me sign a contract.  That’s why you killed my grandfather.  You know it’s impossible for me to feel anything at all for you.  Who could ever love you?  You’re out of your fucking mind.”

“Then why did you agree to come back home with me tonight?” Uri demanded, wiping messily at his cheeks.  “Why would you keep misleading me?”

“I knew I didn’t have a choice!”  Kenny braced himself as his body weakened more quickly now.  “You drugged me, didn’t you?  You weren’t ever going to give me a choice.  Why fight a war when I’ve lost every battle?  What’s the fucking point?”

Uri dried his cheeks and nodded.  “Right. You’re right.  Absolutely right.  But why do I owe you a choice?  You’ve killed dozens of my men.  You’re dead to rights.” He curled his lip. “If you would prefer, I could kill you, but you already said that you don’t want to die.  So make a choice now: me or death.”

Kenny fell weakly against the seat, his sharp eyes losing focus.  “You’re right.  I don’t want to die.  I’m afraid to die. If there’s an afterlife, I’m going to hell.  You’re better than the devil. After all, aren’t you supposed to be like a god in this world?”

Uri touched Kenny’s wet cheek, and the last Ackerman trembled beneath his touch. “Is that what you think, Kenny?” he asked.  “Do you think I’m a god? Do you really think following me in this life is going to save you from eternal damnation?”

Kenny’s eyelids fluttered as he faded.  His head hung heavily on his shoulders.  “I don’t know. I just don’t want to die…”

Uri leaned in close and kissed him on the ear.  “I don’t want to die either.”  He wasn’t sure if Kenny had heard him before he passed out. It wasn’t something a god should have said, but he wasn’t sure if Kenny would remember any of this. It was likely that Kenny would wake up the next morning with no knowledge of the previous evening’s happenings. At least, Uri hoped that would be the case.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Kenny breathed in sharply as his consciousness roused. Sunlight fell across his bleary eyes, and he rolled away from it and onto his side.  He tugged the crisp sheets tighter to him and settled once more into the soft bed.  When he felt a soft touch on the top of his head, he froze.  His reddened eyes darted to the place in bed beside him, where Uri reclined, propped up on pillows, reading a thick novel, and only wearing a thin robe. Had he gone home with Uri? Panic struck him when he didn’t remember how he had ended up in Uri Reiss’s bedroom and partially undressed.

“Good morning, Kenny,” Uri muttered, his fingers tangling themselves in the other man’s disheveled dark hair.  “Do you feel better this morning?”

Kenny shivered, despite the warmth of the blankets.  “How did I get here?”  He touched his pounding head and then the red leather collar around his neck. “I only remember that you came to get me last night.  Did I drink any?”

“You were upset.”  Uri stroked his thumb along Kenny’s jaw and across his sharp cheekbone.  He never looked up from his novel.  “You said some very hurtful things, and then you passed out. I worried about you, so I brought you to sleep in my bed.”

By Uri’s stilted words, Kenny could tell he was hurt.  He only wished that he could have remembered what they had argued about. Maybe he had betrayed his thoughts regarding the mysterious deaths of Gramps and Jerome.  When he opened his mouth to speak again, Uri spoke for him instead.

“I want you to know that it was not my brother’s men who killed your grandfather and your farmhand,” he said.  His eyes never left the pages of the book.  “Rod sent out one of his men to see if he heard anything around town about the deaths. It turns out that someone had wanted to avenge the deaths of the council.  You’re lucky that you hadn’t been sleeping the farmhouse that night because they likely would have killed you as well.”

“Who was it?” Kenny demanded, bolting upright.  The bell on his collar jingled at his movement.  “Did he find out?”

“Rod had taken care of it.”  Uri snapped the book closed and set it aside on his nightstand.  “Don’t worry.  The men who killed them have been brought to justice.  It’s no longer an issue.”

“Oh.” Kenny lay down once more, moving just a bit closer to Uri’s side.  His heart thudded in his chest.  “So I guess I told you last night that I thought you or your brother had been responsible.”

“That is correct.” Uri stared down at his hands. “I’ll have to punish you.”

“Or I could beg forgiveness for my trespass against you,” Kenny whispered, taking one of Uri’s hands and pressing it tightly against his chapped lips. “I was upset.  I wasn’t thinking clearly.”  He kissed each knuckle, dragging his lips along Uri’s fingers. “I want to be good to you.” His heart dropped in his chest. “I don’t want you to leave me alone ever again.”

“Forgive your trespass against me?”  Uri huffed, pulling his hand away from Kenny’s grasp.  “It’s not that simple.  You’ll not only have to beg forgiveness but also appease me.” His blue eyes flickered across the sheets and to Kenny.  “Tell me how I should punish you.”

Kenny nibbled his lip and hunched his shoulders.  “I mean, I don’t know…”  Heat wafted off his scarlet cheeks.  “You could always tie me up and do stuff to me, but it’s not like I want you to!”

“Oh? Are you sure?”

Uri shoved the sheets off his body and stood, his silk robe clinging to his lean frame. His eyes fixated upon his pet, he crossed to a chest beside the bookshelf on the other side of the bedroom. With a smirk, he threw open the lid, revealing inside a treasure trove of bondage gear. Kenny coughed nervously as Uri drew out a few coils of red rope.

“How much do you really need?”

Uri chuckled bitterly.  “You’ll see. Now get up and strip.”

Kenny slithered out of the sheets and shrugged out of the clothes he still wore from the previous night, his undershirt and boxers.  When he was naked, he stood beside the bed and rubbed his elbows. He wasn’t sure what he had expected out of this scenario, but he figured he could withstand anything that the smaller man could dole out.

“Good.” Uri nodded toward the bed. “Sit on your knees.”

Kenny did as he was told without protest and sat on his knees on the foot of the bed. Following further instruction, he held out his wrists to the king.  Uri tightly bound his wrists, still marked lightly from the last time he had tied him up.  Then, he tugged Kenny’s wrists over and behind his head, and he tied off the remainder of the coil of rope around Kenny’s midsection.  When Kenny tested the bonds, the rope tightened around his waist, and his hands hardly budged from the nape of his neck.

“It should hold against your strength.”  Uri snickered as he lightly flicked his fingertip across Kenny’s nipple, prompting a surprised gasp.  “My rope work is pretty good. I should tell you sometime about the rope class my brother and I took.”

“I’d rather not hear about your brother’s and your escapades in learning bondage together,” Kenny said, deadpanning.  “That’s not the type of family fun I want to know about.”

“Heh, don’t get smart with that cute mouth.”  Uri clicked his tongue and tapped Kenny’s nose playfully.  “Second time you do that, I’ll slap you.  Third time, I’ll gag you.  Now sit on your butt with your legs in front of you.  Keep your calves squeezed to the backs of your thighs as if you were still sitting on your knees.”

With a huff, Kenny followed the orders he had been given.  Uri placed two coils of red rope on either side of Kenny and bound each leg separately, wrapping the rope so that each ankle was tied firmly to the thigh.  When Uri turned away toward the chest again, Kenny once more tested the knots.  He grimaced; even when the king played around, his knots were flawless.  Uri returned with a steel bar, a foot and a half in length, fitted with Velcro cuffs on either end.

“What is that?  You’re not hitting me with that or sticking it in me, are you?”

“Dear lord, no,” Uri said.  “It’s to keep your thighs from clamping down on me.  Now spread your legs.”

Uri fitted the spreader bar between Kenny’s legs, securing each end to his thighs. Again, Kenny tested the strength of the restraints, and the king smirked at his struggle. When finally he had tired of watching Kenny’s struggling and was ready to begin properly the punishment, Uri seized Kenny’s chin and peered into his face.

“Even though this is your first punishment, I won’t be gentle,” Uri explained, his thumb stroking Kenny’s slightly trembling lip.  “You will accept your punishment with grace.  You will thank me for correcting your poor behavior. When I think that you have had enough, the punishment will end.  Consider this part of your training.  Now, what do you say?”

Kenny furrowed his brow.  “I don’t know to be honest.”

“You say, ‘Yes, Lord Reiss,’” Uri purred, leaning close to his ear. “If ever in doubt, say, ‘Yes, Lord Reiss.’”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss.”

“Good. Let’s get started.”

Uri spun on his heels and ambled over to the chest once more.  After sifting through the contents of the chest, finally he drew out a leather paddle.  When he approached the bed, tapping his open palm with the broad side of the paddle, Kenny’s stomach churned in anticipation.  Grinning slightly, Uri sat comfortably on the edge of the bed and beckoned Kenny with the wag of his finger.

“Lie face down across my lap.”

“Yes, Lord Reiss…”

Clenching his jaw, Kenny slowly slithered on his knees across the bed and to Uri. In spite of the spreader bar between his knees, he was able to move in his upright position, even if barely. For a moment, he waited for Uri to help him, but with a sigh of resignation, he threw his weight forward and plopped belly down across Uri’s lap, his face buried in the sheets. Of course, once he was off his knees, he realized he could no longer move in any purposeful way, and panic squeezed his heart at the same time that warmth filled his belly.

“That’s a good boy,” Uri cooed.  He tapped gently on Kenny’s exposed buttocks.  “Raise your ass as high as you can.”

“Yes, Lord Reiss…”

Kenny arched his back and pressed his knees into the mattress.  His pulse thundered in his ears.  When Uri raked his fingernails down his back, he gasped and shuddered, the shivering feeling ricocheting in his body.  Then when he felt the graze of fingernails on the insides of his thighs, his strength wavered, and his hips collapsed onto Uri’s lap. Uri sighed as he gripped the handle of the paddle in his dominant hand.

“Oh, dear, can you not keep that ass raised?”  He clicked his tongue in disapproval.  “I guess it’s too much to ask of someone so inexperienced.  I will expect better of you next time, however.”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss…”

Kenny wanted to hate how Uri spoke to him, but his belly fluttered when the king scolded him.  He turned his head to watch Uri, but he couldn’t see very much with his face being pressed tightly to the mattress.  Unable to see Uri’s dominant hand, he felt the brush of cool leather up the insides of his thighs, instinctively struggling to clamp together although unable to move. With the paddle, Uri kneaded circles into the fullest part of Kenny’s rump, warming up the leather. In anticipation of his punishment, Kenny squirmed.

“I’ll start slow and gradually increase the intensity,” Uri explained, his free hand gliding down Kenny’s spine and resting gently on his tailbone. “You’re allowed to make noise if needed, but you must take your punishment with grace.”

“Yes, Lord Reiss.”

Uri chuckled. “You don’t have to respond every time unless that is what I have asked you to do.  The most important thing is if I can tell you are listening to my commands.”

Kenny thought to respond if only to annoy Uri, but then he felt the light tap of leather on his butt.  He flinched slightly, even if the tapping of the paddle on his flesh didn’t hurt.  When finally Kenny relaxed visibly, Uri flicked his wrist and snapped the paddle sharply against his ass, but after just two sharp strikes, he returned to tapping gently.  Kenny clenched his jaw and breathed heavily in through his nose, his hands and thighs shaking in their restraints.

“Are you really that sensitive?” Uri asked quietly through the smirk on his lips. “Your shaking is cute. Keep doing that, though perhaps you need more intensity to make the sounds that I really like.”

Again, Uri snapped the paddle against the tender flesh.  Kenny cried out in surprise when he repeated the motion over and over again.  The stinging sensation radiated outward from the area of impact and slowly spread throughout his body. He struggled to still his quaking hips, his tumescent cock pressing into Uri’s thigh.  Without letting up on the intensity, Uri slid his free hand up Kenny’s twitching back, and he grasped and tugged at Kenny’s black hair.

“You’re already hard,” he purred.  “Do you get off on humiliation and pain, you little slut?”  The next strike of his paddle slapped more forcefully against Kenny’s ass.  He wrenched Kenny’s hair, bringing his face away from the mattress.  “Make some noises, and answer me.”

“N-no, it’s not like that…,” Kenny stuttered, redness spreading across his hot cheeks. “It’s just a natural response to being touched like that…”

Grimacing slightly, Uri struck Kenny’s ass harder, and Kenny gasped loudly. The impact sent shockwaves of pain throughout his body, intensifying with each repeated strike. Kenny writhed, but he couldn’t escape the relentless blows against his bottom.

“I didn’t ask for a smartass response,” Uri snarled, refusing to let up on his paddling. “Now answer me appropriately.”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss!” Kenny cried out through gritted teeth.

“Are you a slut for pain?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss!”

“Then thank me for the pain!” Uri snapped, his fingers firmly entwined in Kenny’s black hair. “Thank me for punishing you!”

“Thank you, Lord Reiss!” Kenny’s ragged breaths caught in his throat.  The pain from the paddling transformed into euphoria at the sudden release of endorphins, flooding his brain.  “Thank… thank you, Lord Reiss!”

“Good boy.” Uri shifted his weight beneath Kenny’s body and moved his free hand to Kenny’s waist once more. “Hold out for a while longer. When I am ready to end this part of your punishment, I will have you count out the last ten spanks. Understood?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss…”

With each swat on the ass, Uri’s intensity increased until finally he struck as hard as he could, the smack of flesh ringing throughout the bedroom. When finally the stinging sensation overwhelmed Kenny, his immobilized body succumbed to violent shudders, and his voice was nothing more than breathless whimpers. In spite of the pain, excitement churned in his belly—never had he imagined that he could be aroused by his own vulnerability.  When the pain escalated and became too much, instead of begging Uri to stop, he chomped down on his lip and tensed his hips.  Screwing his eyes shut, he breathed in deeply through his nose—if he ever hoped to be as strong as Uri, he would have to withstand any punishment that Uri doled out without breaking.

“Last ten spanks,” Uri boomed, drawing back the paddle.  “I want you to count out loud, following each number with ‘Lord Reiss.’ Understood?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss,” Kenny muttered through his clenched jaw.

“You’ll have to say that more clearly if I’m to hear your voice over the smack of the paddle against your ass.”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss!”

“Good boy. Get ready.”

After a moment’s pause, unable to see Uri’s paddling arm, Kenny braced himself, his muscles tightening in trepidation.  The short break in the spanking had allowed enough time for Kenny to feel the flushed burning on the surface of his bottom, spreading down the backs of his thighs and to his most sensitive areas.  Then, as the sensation began to subside, Uri brought down the paddle hard against his ass. Kenny sucked in a breath, too surprised by the sting on his rump to speak at all.  Uri curled his lip, his gaze intensifying on the back of Kenny’s head.

“You have to count out loud.  Let’s start again.”

When Uri whacked his ass with the paddle once more, Kenny pushed the pain out of his mind and strengthened his resolve.  He was strong enough to handle anything Uri could dole out, after all…

“One, Lord Reiss,” he uttered.

“Good, but please raise your voice.”  The paddle connected with the burning flesh again.

“T-two, Lord Reiss!”

“Is that really as loud as you can be?  Rod in his house next door can likely hear the smacks, so he should be able to hear your voice as well.”

As Uri continued the countdown, each smack prompted the proper response from Kenny. Focus upon each blow intensified the stinging sensation, reverberated deep inside his belly, and excited him. Even when his eyes watered from the pain, he called out hoarsely if only to appease his owner. Upon completion of the countdown, Kenny having called out the final number, Uri set aside the paddle and raked his fingernails across the sensitive skin of Kenny’s ass.

“My good boy took his punishment so well,” he snickered, kneading circles into the flesh with his fingertips.  “I’m not so sure that pain is really the way to punish you, however.  Did you enjoy it?”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss.”

“Oh, I see. Hmm, perhaps it’s an Ackerman quality to be so impervious to pain.”  A smirk returned to his lips.  He tapped Kenny’s ass gently. “Okay, let’s try something else for the next part of your punishment.”

Kenny swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, but it soon returned when Uri flipped him onto his back, his trussed knees pointing toward the ceiling. He tested his bonds to see if he could move at all, but he could only arch his back and wriggle his hips slightly. Uri kneeled down on the bed beside him and brushed his fingers down Kenny’s flushed chest and to his swollen cock. His eyes lit up when Kenny flinched at his touch upon his electrified flesh.

“Are you already that aroused?”  He wrapped his hand around the cock, hardening beneath his grip.  He leaned down and kissed Kenny’s belly.  “Tell me that you’re a dirty little slut.”

Kenny held his breath, unsure of how to respond.  “Y-yes, Lord Reiss.”

“Say it. You’re a dirty little slut.” Uri stroked the cock in his hand, caressing down the shaft and up again with a firm grasp.  “I want to hear you say it to me.”

“I…” Kenny’s gut knotted up even while warmth bubbled in his belly.  He moaned quietly.  “I’m a dirty little slut, Lord Reiss.”

“Say it louder.” Uri moved his hand faster up and down the length of Kenny’s pulsing cock.  “I seem to have trouble with hearing your voice.”

“I’m a dirty little slut, Lord Reiss!”

Kenny arched his back, and his immobile hands pressed tightly to the nape of his neck. His thighs, slick with sweat, quivered. Uri hummed his approval.

“Good boy, but whose dirty little slut are you?”

“I’m your dirty little slut, Lord Reiss,” Kenny said without further prompting. His breath caught in his throat.

“Will you cum soon if I keep stroking you like this?”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss…”

Uri glided his fingers up the underside of the shaft and teased the sensitive spot just beneath the head.  Moaning loudly, Kenny writhed, his hips bucking and pressing into the mattress. Precum spilled from the tip and dripped down, coating Uri’s fingertips.  The king snickered under his breath.

“Then I’ll just have to delay that until I allow you to cum,” he said. “Let’s begin with the second part of your punishment.”

Kenny had not expected Uri to keep touching him.  Much to his surprise, Uri simply changed his technique, wrapping his fingers around the root of Kenny’s cock and stroking up from the base to the end of the shaft, right below the start of the head.  Instead of stroking down to the base again, however, he released his grip and again caressed from the base to the tip. The familiar pressure built at the base of his spine as Uri serviced his cock slowly but steadily. He wasn’t sure how this was supposed to be a punishment until he felt himself on the edge but unable to cum. Panic crossed his gray eyes, and he sucked in a deep breath.  Uri gazed up at him and flashed a sadistic smile.

“Do you know that the male orgasm is triggered when the cock feels like it is pushing inside of something?”  Uri clicked his tongue. “Without the downward strokes, it is very difficult to achieve orgasm.  The upward strokes, however, will both arouse and frustrate you.”

Kenny furrowed his brow and gritted his teeth, stifling his moans.  Certainly, it wasn’t possible to hold him on the edge like this for very long.  When Uri’s attention didn’t waver from his cock and neither did the feeling deep inside of him, his body trembled and quaked, and his muscles tensed.  Against his will, he whimpered, his cries echoing across the bedroom.  Desperation chewed at him, furling deep inside his belly.  Without prompting, he spoke quietly.

“Please, Lord Reiss…”

“What did you say?”  Uri looked into Kenny’s scarlet face, but his touch was relentless.  “Do you mean to beg me for relief?”

“Please, Lord Reiss,” Kenny groaned.  “Please let me cum.  I can’t handle much more…”

“You would be surprised what you might be able to handle if you pushed yourself enough,” Uri cooed.  Excitement sparked in his dark eyes.  “You don’t deserve to cum, but I do.  I could fuck that mouth of yours and be satisfied.  Maybe that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

Something inside Kenny snapped, and he flailed at his restraints when Uri stopped touching him.  Anxiety squeezed his heart.

“No, please!” he gasped.  “Don’t—“

Before he could utter another word, Uri drew back his hand and struck Kenny’s face, the firm smack ringing in Kenny’s ears.  Kenny’s colorless eyes blew wide as tears surfaced.  Had Uri really just slapped him?  Uri flexed his hand and glared pointedly at his pet.

“You are not to speak to me in that manner,” he retorted.  “I warned you earlier that the next smart comment would warrant a slap and the next one after a gag.  I won’t be happy with you if I have to take such drastic action. Understood?”

At first, anger welled up inside of Kenny—what the fuck made this bastard think he could strike him across the face?  As soon as he thought it, however, the sting faded from his cheek when euphoria washed over him.  The tension in his body released, and the scowl disappeared from his face.  _Of course._ Uri was the only one stronger than he in this cruel world.  The only way he could possibly hope to be nearly as strong someday is if Uri trained him to be stronger.  He breathed in deeply.

“Yes, Lord Reiss.  I apologize.”

“My good boy is learning,” Uri hummed, stroking gently the place he had previously slapped.  With his other hand, he loosened the knot in the belt of his robe, and the thin fabric fell away from his shoulders, revealing his nakedness.  “I’m impressed.  If you do well in this next part, I’ll fuck you to orgasm.”

Without further ado, Uri straddled Kenny’s chest and rested his knees beside Kenny’s elbows, extended over his head.  One hand brushed along Kenny’s jaw while the other hand firmly gripped his own cock. As he touched himself, Uri bowed his head and locked eyes with Kenny, panting and blushing.  A devious smile reached his lips.

“If you need me that much, you should tell me,” Uri said.  “You’re gasping so wantonly, like you might die if I don’t fuck you.  Tell me what you need.”

“I need you, Lord Reiss…”

Uri’s eyes lit up with delight, and his cock stiffened beneath his touch. Still, he chuckled.

“Good boys are more specific than that,” he cooed.  “Don’t you want to be a good boy?  Tell me exactly what you want.”

Never had Kenny thought before that he wanted to be “a good boy,” but in that moment he wanted nothing more than to please his owner.  He wriggled beneath Uri’s body and whimpered.

“Please, Lord Reiss, I need you… I need your cock.”

“Oh, is that right?”  Uri grinned, his teeth glinting in the soft light of the bedroom.  “Would you like my cock in your mouth?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss…”

“Then tell me that.  Good boys are specific in what they need.”

“I need your cock in my mouth, Lord Reiss.”

When he spoke the words, embarrassment crossed Kenny’s flushed face. Uri snickered and glided the pad of his thumb across Kenny’s thick bottom lip.

“Okay. Open your mouth wide.”

With some hesitation, Kenny parted his lips and opened his mouth. Smirking, Uri gripped Kenny’s hair and tugged his head up off the mattress.  When Uri’s cock pressed into his mouth, Kenny squirmed feverishly. As per Uri’s instructions, he closed his mouth gently around the shaft, rubbed his tongue along the pulsing underside, and sucked firmly.  He had believed he would hate to ever be in this position, but the warmth of the flesh on his tongue was oddly arousing.  Uri wrapped Kenny’s thick hair around his fingers and tightened his grasp.

“Good boy,” he said.  “Keep still just like that. I’m going to move my hips now.”

Kenny braced himself when suddenly Uri pulled nearly all the way out. For a moment, he paused and allowed Kenny to suck just the head of his cock, but then he thrust his hips shallowly. With a tight grip on Kenny’s head, he moved in and out, sighing pleasantly.  While fucking his mouth, Uri reached behind him with his free hand and stroked upward on Kenny’s cock, prompting desperate flailing and whimpers. After a few more minutes of alternating between teasing Kenny and thrusting into his mouth, Uri released his grip on Kenny’s hair, pulled out, and allowed Kenny’s head to fall back onto the mattress once more.

“Good boy,” Uri said.  “That’s good enough. Is there something you need me to do now?”

With glazed eyes, Kenny looked up at Uri, hovering over him.  His cheeks swelled with heat.

“Please, I need you to fuck me, Lord Reiss,” he whispered.

“Good boy.” Uri moved off of Kenny’s chest and sat beside him.  “You’ve been very good during your punishment.  I won’t always reward you for good behavior, but since this is your first time being disciplined, I’ll give you what you need.”

“Th-thank you, Lord Reiss.”

When Uri rose to his feet and walked away from the bed, Kenny stared at the ceiling. He heard the opening and closing of the nightstand drawer, and his body trembled in anticipation of being fucked. Uri stepped over to the bed once more and kneeled between his spread, bound legs.  Taking his time, he opened the small jar in his hands and smeared lube up and down the length of his cock.  Kenny jumped slightly when Uri touched his entrance with cold, slick fingers.

“Please just hurry,” Kenny muttered.  He recoiled when Uri’s fingertips slid inside of him and moved back and forth. “You don’t have to be so careful and prep so much.”

Uri bent down and kissed the tops of Kenny’s knees.  “You’re not experienced enough to be treated so roughly,” he said as he slipped out his fingers.  “Relax. Allow me to take care of my pet. I know what I’m doing, so just trust me that everything I do is necessary.”

Uri gripped the spreader bar between Kenny’s knees and pushed it down toward his belly, surprised pleasantly by his pet’s flexibility.  With Kenny’s trussed knees now touching his torso, Uri pressed his cock into him, slowly easing inside, until his hips met with Kenny’s. Upon feeling Uri completely inside of him, Kenny clenched his jaw and threw his head back against the mattress. In this position, completely immobilized, he was at the mercy of the king.  His breaths hung heavy in the silence, and his cock quivered, ready to blow if only Uri would touch him the right way.

“Your insides are squeezing so tightly against me,” Uri gasped.  His shoulders trembled.  “Luckily for you, I’m not going to last long at this rate. When I’m ready to cum, then I’ll let you cum as well.”

Slowly, Uri pulled out all the way before he slammed the weight of his hips down onto Kenny. With a firm grip on the spreader bar and one of the trussed thighs, Uri thrust in and out steadily. As his own pleasure intensified, however, his hips quickened their pace, his and Kenny’s moans filling the space around them.  Every minute or so, he brushed his hand upward on Kenny’s shaft and relished the clenching of Kenny’s insides on his own cock.  As he approached climax, Uri brushed his shaggy platinum hair away from his sweat-slicked forehead and blushing cheeks.

“Do you want to cum?” he asked through his heavy breaths.

“Dear god, please just let me cum!” Kenny begged, his eyes glossy. At this point, his mind was completely overwhelmed by euphoria.  “I can’t wait any longer…!”

Without waiting a moment longer, Uri clamped his hand down on Kenny’s cock and rubbed it firmly.  Almost as soon as he had done it, the pressure at the base of Kenny’s spine exploded. Ecstasy surged through him when he orgasmed and spurted cum on Uri’s hand and his own belly, and every line of his quaking body tightened up all at once.  When he clenched down on the cock inside of him, Uri’s eyes blew wide. With a loud gasp, Uri shuddered and released his own seed deep inside of Kenny.  Only a moment later, Uri pulled out and collapsed against the mattress.

“Amen,” Kenny whispered under his breath.  Relief rushed through him as his muscles relaxed.  “Thank you…”

Uri struggled upright and ran his fingers through his sticky hair. “You did really well,” he said, touching Kenny’s knee.  “Hold still. Let me clean up this mess, and then I’ll untie you.”

Uri fetched a clean towel from the drawer of the nightstand.  Delicately, he wiped off his cock and Kenny’s belly before placing it between Kenny’s legs.  After he removed the spreader bar, he unbound Kenny’s shaking thighs, marked with red lines from where the rope had coiled around his legs.  Once he helped Kenny sit upright, he untied the remaining rope from around his midsection, brought Kenny’s hands from behind the nape of his neck, and released him from his restraints.  Kenny stretched his limbs and arched his back, wincing at the stiffness in his joints.  Uri nuzzled his neck and rubbed his shoulders.

“You’re such a good boy,” he cooed.

“Do you forgive me now?”

Uri nodded quietly.  “I do.” He rested his head against his shoulder. “Do you forgive me?”

Kenny frowned.  “What am I supposed to forgive you for?”  He laughed uneasily. “For only being kind when it’s to your own advantage?”

When Uri didn’t answer the question or argue with the jest, Kenny glanced over to him to see the darkness in his eyes and the small smile upon his lips. His heart wavered in his chest. What exactly had happened between them last night?  Why couldn’t he remember anything, no matter how hard he tried?  Uri touched Kenny’s swollen cheek and leaned in to kiss him.

“I guess you’re right,” Uri said.  “I’m a kind man only when it’s convenient.”

Perhaps Kenny should have been alarmed by the confession, but instead he kissed Uri. When he pulled his face away, Uri seemed surprised by the show of affection.

“I won’t ever force you to be kind,” he said.  “If you must be cruel, so be it.  I gave you my life to use as you see fit.  I am your instrument, your tool, your weapon in this world. After all, isn’t that what I signed up for?”

Kenny smirked.  Of course, he would serve Uri to the best of his abilities.  Of course, he would follow his every order and every command. Of course, he would do all of this until he too had the strength that Uri possessed, until he was finally stronger than the Titan king.  Then Uri Reiss would be no more in this walled world.

The smile never faded from Uri’s lips. The darkness swirled in his blue eyes. “Of course.  Then I’ll use you as I like.”


	5. Pendulum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Reiss brothers and Kenny make an appearance at a royal party. Uri struggles with his mood swings, but Kenny tries to be patient and kind.
> 
> Rod isn't invited to the after party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS
> 
> \+ heavy bondage  
> \+ intense Dom/sub dynamic
> 
> ((See note at the end for author's comments))

“Oh, well, if it isn’t the elder Lord Reiss!”

A portly middle-aged gentleman, dressed in gaudy baubles and silk clothing, pushed through the bustling crowd around him and crossed the large ballroom to Rod Reiss.  Rod looked up from his conversation with his blonde-haired mistress and turned to the other royal, quickly approaching him.  A perfectly practiced smile, never reaching his eyes, spread across his plump face.

“Oh, Lord Green, thank you so much for the invitation,” Rod said. He gazed across the ballroom, as gilded in finery as the party’s host.  The bright light of the crystal chandeliers bounced off the polished white marble floors and nearly blinded him.  “You really went the extra mile on the party this year.”

Lord Green grinned and clamped Rod’s shoulder.  “Were you satisfied with the room and the accommodations?  The servants treated you well?”

“Oh, well, your hotel is one of the finest in the countryside.”  Rod wriggled his shoulder until the other lord’s hand fell away. “And your manservants and maids are always kind.”

Rod knew the next question.  He had rehearsed the answer a thousand times in his mind, but he wasn’t as prepared as he had thought when Lord Green opened his stupid, fat mouth.

“I saw that the younger Lord Reiss is in attendance.  I thought that was unusual for him to want to come to these gatherings unless he has something to show off.”  Lord Green’s face split into a wide grin.  “So who is that young man with him?  You must introduce me!”

Rod tried to sound natural when he laughed, but much to his chagrin he sounded more like a dying horse.  To be honest, he would have rather been a dying horse than to be associated with Uri’s boy-toy of three months.

“Oh, Uri’s new partner?” he stuttered.  “Oh, that is… that is, uh…”

Lord Green’s brown eyes stared expectantly at him.  Rod sighed in resignation.

“That is the last living Ackerman inside Wall Sina.”

“Oh!” The party host raised his silver eyebrows.  “How exotic! I thought I had heard the rumor, but no one had seen them in public together.”  He licked his teeth.  “Uri must be a good master if he is able to control the only man unable to be influenced against his will.”

Rod wrinkled his nose.  Over the past few months, he had more than once had the misfortune of accidentally intruding upon his brother’s sessions with his lover.  He shuddered visibly.

“Yes, I imagine so.  My younger brother has his ways.”

“Yes, yes, so introduce me!”

Rod looked to his blonde mistress, and she rolled her eyes at him before storming away. With resignation, he sighed.

“If you insist.”

Cursing under his breath, Rod led Lord Green to the other side of the ballroom, where a small crowd had gathered around the true king of the walls and the last Ackerman.  Already, Rod saw in his mind the description of Uri and Kenny in the society papers. “ _Lord Uri Reiss had toned down his dress for this year’s annual royal gathering at Hotel Cherie, but only perhaps because his new beau was enough of a fashion accessory.  While the younger Lord Reiss had worn a long light-blue duster jacket with his dress clothes, his inamorato, the controversial Kenny Ackerman, had dressed smartly in a black three-piece suit, well tailored to his tall, lean but muscular frame. When asked later about the pairing, Lord Green, the host of the party, had declared Lord Uri Reiss’s unusual choice in partner as ‘stunning’ and ‘exotic’.”_   Rod reminded himself not even to bother with the paper in the morning.

When he caught sight of his brother, Uri waved.  “Oh, Rod, there you are,” he said, pushing through the congregation of party guests and dragging Kenny behind him.  At that moment, Rod noticed that Uri had a vice grip on Kenny’s wrist. “Is there something you need?”

Rod curled his lip stiffly and motioned toward the party host.  “Uri, I would like to formally introduce Lord Green, our gracious host.  You may have met a few years ago.”

“I remember Lord Green.”  Uri nodded his head politely and flashed a smile.  “Thank you for the invitation to your party.  I hope you don’t mind that I brought my little pet.”  He wrapped himself around Kenny’s arm.  “Lord Green, this is my lover, Kenny Ackerman.”

Rod’s stomach churned every time he heard the word “lover” in relation to Uri or Kenny. He had told himself every day since Kenny’s failed assassination attempt that his brother would grow old of this charade any day now.  He grimaced on the inside. _Any day now_.

“He’s so beautiful,” Lord Green gushed.  “It’s too bad that the Ackerman family was a disgraced house. Think of how many beautiful men and women slipped through our fingers…!”  He grasped Kenny’s free hand and peered up at the taller man. “Tell me, did you happen to have any brothers or sisters?”

Kenny glanced askew at Uri, glaring daggers at the man who dared touch his pet. Clearing his throat, he tugged his hand from Lord Green’s grip.

“No, there is no one else left, sir,” he muttered.

Rod had always been suspicious of Kenny’s insistence of having no other family. If they were all dead, why had it been so important that protection of his extended family had been written into his contract?

“Oh, that’s too bad.”  Lord Green turned his attention to Uri and grinned.  “Lord Reiss, I’d like to discuss something with you and perhaps show you around the more… private areas where the afterparty will take place.”  He grasped Uri’s shoulder.  “I’m certain that your inamorato will be well taken care of by your brother in the meantime.”

“I don’t know about that,” Rod and Kenny said nearly in unison. Their hateful gazes turned on each other.

Uri wrinkled his nose and rubbed his lips together.  “Well, if this little conversation won’t take up too much time, I suppose I could indulge you…”  His grip on Kenny’s wrist loosened slightly.  “I mean, it’s my pet’s first outing.  I don’t know how well he will behave on his own.”

Kenny gently tugged his wrist from Uri.  “I’ll be fine, Lord Reiss,” he said quietly.  “I’ll wait with your brother.”

Uri hesitated for a moment, his blue eyes going wide, but then Rod touched his brother’s shoulder and smiled slightly.

“Go,” he said.  “No one’s going to steal your boy toy.  If they try, I’ll kick their asses myself.”

“Right.” Uri laughed stiffly. He reached up and touched Kenny’s face. “Be good for my brother, okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Yes, Lord Reiss,” Kenny whispered, pressing his lips to Uri’s fingertips. “I’ll wait right here for your return.”

Once Uri had walked away with Lord Green, Rod sighed loudly and grasped Kenny’s elbow.

“Come on,” he muttered.  He nodded toward the bar along the side of the dance floor.  “Let’s get a beer.”

Kenny wriggled his nose.  “Lord Reiss didn’t say that I could—“

“Okay, can you please stop with that whole thing for five minutes?” Rod snapped. His eyes rolled nearly all the way back into his head.  “I never consented to being involved in your weird kink, so don’t expect me to participate.” A sneer twisted his face. “Besides, it’s not like you’re actually into it.  You’re just waiting until you can figure out how to kill my brother.”

“Um, excuse you, but I am actually into it.  Why the fuck else do you think I’m walking around with this on?” Kenny tugged at the red collar around his neck, concealed by the high collar of his dress shirt, as he followed after Rod to the bar.  “In spite of what you may think, I do actually have some dignity.  If I weren’t into this, I would rather be dead than participate in something that I hate.”

“You’ll understand if I don’t believe you, right?”  Rod waved two fingers at the bartender.  After a moment, the bartender approached them and slapped two mugs of beer down on the bar.  Rod nudged a mug toward Kenny.  “But then again, even after these three months, I still don’t know you very well. Perhaps for just a few minutes, you could indulge my curiosity?”

Kenny eyed the beer hesitantly before sighing in resignation and picking up the mug. He brought it to his lips and took a gulp.

“If you insist,” he muttered.  “We don’t have much to discuss, however.  There’s not much to know.”

“You should be flattered that I waste my time at all on you.”  The elder Reiss brother crossed his arms tightly against his flabby chest.  “I don’t know why Uri spends every moment, every breath, preoccupied with you. I’m just trying to understand what the hell he sees.  Honestly, I thought at first it was his folly, but now I wonder if the coordinate has ruined his mind completely.”

“ _Lord Reiss_ ,” Kenny snarled, “I’ll only tell you once.  Never insult Uri in my presence.  I will not be so kind next time.” His gray eyes glared daggers over the rim of the mug as he took another sip of his beer.  “If you want to test my loyalty, just dare to talk shit about your brother to my face.”

Rod opened his mouth to speak, but he hesitated at the feral glint in Kenny’s eye. During his research into the family, he had discovered that Ackermans, once leashed, would never defect from their masters.  Even Kenny’s great-grandfather had not faltered in his loyalty to the crown and had given his life willingly at his master’s decree.  If that were true of all Ackermans and if Kenny had truly given his life to Uri, he had no doubt in his mind that Uri’s pet would kill him where he stood if he spoke another ill word of his brother, the king.  He nodded curtly.

“I may not believe your words, but I believe the eyes of a killer.  You really are crazy in the traditional sense over Uri.”

Kenny’s lips pressed together tightly.  “You better fucking believe it.”  He supped his beer.  “Get to the point. If you want to ask me something, then just spit it out.  I’m the one wasting my time on you, after all.”

“I just want to know why.  Why are you indulging Uri?  You could always escape with what’s left of your dignity, couldn’t you?”

“Is that all?”  Kenny chewed on his thick bottom lip.  “Uri is the only one to have ever foiled my plans twice.  I’ve had one or two who escaped my blade once, but… well, I learn quickly. I adapt.  I don’t make the same mistake twice.”  He nursed his beer between thoughts.  “I’m not that good at many things, but I’m good at killing, and I’m good at making Uri happy.  Is that good enough for you, _Lord Reiss_?”

Rod winced. In a way, he was correct. Ever since Kenny had come barreling into their lives, Uri had seemed more content.  Now that he didn’t spend so much time alone, Uri hadn’t had much chance to dwell on what the coordinate showed his mind’s eye. He hadn’t lain, comatose, in bed for days on end since Kenny had given his life to him.  Still, their honeymoon wouldn’t last.  He tapped his fingers along the edge of the bar.

“How will you handle the coordinate when it decides to take over Uri for days on end?”

“What the fuck do you mean by that?”  Kenny huffed. “Uri controls himself very well. Maybe you just don’t know how to calm him down.”

“Uri has a few good months with minimal interference from the coordinate, but…” Rod’s voice trailed off as he gazed across the ballroom.  “He can lose control. Just promise me that you won’t abandon him when he becomes a monster.”

Kenny curled his lip.  “I don’t owe you any promises. I already promised Uri, and I treasure his words more than I could ever even begin to considers yours.” He towered over Rod, casting a shadow upon the short, portly man.  “I have no regard for your life.  The only reason I haven’t killed you is because Uri depends upon you to run the government.”

“Right… It would be a tragedy to inconvenience my brother with actual responsibility, like how he was inconvenienced by your responsibility of having to care for your grandfather until his death.”

“I know you can’t fucking stand me, but let my family rest in fucking peace, jackass.” Kenny took a swig from his beer and slammed down the mug.  “If you want to talk shit about my grandfather or his death, then I may not kill you, but you’ll certainly wish you were dead.”

If there were only one thing Rod had noticed, Kenny didn’t possess the same fire in his eye for his family as he did for Uri.  Rod wasn’t sure if he should have felt better or worse about that. Grumbling under his breath, he turned away from Kenny.  Much to Rod’s relief, silence settled between them for the rest of Uri’s absence. Then, Rod saw Uri’s approach out of the corner of his eye right before Kenny caught sight of him as well. As he came closer, Rod saw the blackness in Uri’s eyes.

“Kenny,” Uri stuttered as he stepped toward the bar, “did you behave for my brother?”

“Of course, Lord Reiss.”  Kenny turned to face him. Surely, Rod thought, the Ackerman saw the darkness that had overtaken Uri during his absence. “Did you enjoy your time with Lord Green?”

Uri nodded, but then his glossy eyes settled on the beer mug in Kenny’s hand. His lip twitched. “I don’t recall giving you permission to have that.”

Kenny frowned.  “Your brother insisted.”

“ _I said_ … I don’t recall giving you permission to have that.”  Uri shook visibly. His voice broke when he spoke again. “I told you that you couldn’t have any alcohol without my permission.  What is so hard to understand about that?”

“Uri, calm down,” Rod muttered, placing a hand on his younger brother’s trembling shoulder. “I made him take it. I insisted.  Besides, it’s a party, right?”

“A party for _sinners_!” Uri snapped. When Rod saw Uri’s eyes completely clouded by blackness, his heart sank.  Now the coordinate spoke in Uri’s stead.  “Such immorality… This place is a den of evil.  It’s pointless to save these people from their fate. I don’t know why I don’t just end their misery now.”

Hesitantly, Kenny touched Uri’s other shoulder.  “Uri, calm down.  You’re working yourself up over nothing—“

“You’re absolutely correct,” Uri hissed, pulling away from Kenny’s grasp. “I am getting worked up over absolutely nothing.  Humanity is nothing at all but worthless sinners who deserve naught but the depths of Hell.”

“Uri, you’re being an asshole,” Rod retorted.  His heart tightened in his chest.  “Remember? You always hated how Father would start screaming at parties.  You said you never wanted to be like him—“

“Get your sinful hand away from me!”  Uri slapped Rod’s hand away from his shoulder.  Disdain sparked in his black eyes.  “You disgust me.  You’re just like the rest of these wayward sinners.  You… You have a wife, a child, and another child on the way, yet you have the audacity to bring some whore to a party of your peers!”

Rod recoiled. “Okay, that’s not fair. You know that Lady Reiss and I have an agreement.”

“You bring shame to our family with your adultery!”  When Uri foamed at the mouth, he reminded Rod of his father, his previous tormentor.  “We are supposed to be beacons of light in this doomed world, but your light of righteousness has been extinguished.  The world is going to Hell, and you’re going to Hell right along with it!”

Rod breathed in sharply.  His brother might have been the king and the one burdened with the Reiss family’s curse, but he had gone far enough now that the others around them began to stare. Right before he snapped, however, Kenny spun Uri to face him.  The Ackerman draped his arms around him and pulled him into an embrace.  When Uri tried to squirm away, his grip only tightened. Blankly, Kenny stared into space, his gray eyes betraying nothing to Rod, who only watched now in silence.

“That’s not fair, Uri,” Kenny whispered in his ear.  “What about your own sin?  After all, you brought your gay lover to a party of your peers. Is that not against nature? Is that not a sin that two unmarried men have down what we have done?”

Uri crumpled in Kenny’s arms, the darkness fading from his eyes. “You’re different,” he whispered. “I’ve forgiven your sins.”

“I never asked you to do that.”  Kenny kissed the top of Uri’s head, breathing in the freshness of his platinum hair. “You owe me nothing. I, on the other hand, owe you everything.”

Rod stood, frozen.  Like magic, before his eyes, Uri returned to himself.  Normally, the coordinate would have continued until it had elicited the angry response it had desired, until Uri was broken and upset.  Seemingly at Kenny’s touch, Uri had banished the coordinate to the recesses of his mind once more.  With a deep breath, he leaned into Kenny’s chest and closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.  When he opened his eyes once more, they had returned to their usual blue.  “I lost myself for a moment there.”

“Welcome back, Lord Reiss,” Kenny said to him.  He leaned down and planted a kiss on his lips.  “Will you be okay, or should we retire for the evening? Maybe have dinner brought to us in the room?”

“That sounds delightful actually.”  Uri gripped the lapels of Kenny’s blazer and buried his face in the starched fabric of his dress shirt.  “Besides, the after party will be much more interesting than the actual party.  We should reserve our energy for that.”

“Wait. What after party?” Rod asked, stuttering.  “Are you saying you got invited to it…?”

“Lord Green said I can’t tell you about it, Rod.  You’ll have to ask him about it yourself, but I don’t think he’s keen on having you join.”  Uri nuzzled Kenny’s pectoral, prompting a blush across Kenny’s cheeks.  “He asked me to bring Kenny.  I wonder if he intends to try to steal my pet…”

“Th-that’s lewd,” Kenny muttered.  “No one is going to try to steal me…”

“Heh.” Uri broke free of Kenny’s grip and stepped back.  He grasped Kenny’s hand and pressed it to his lips.  “Okay. Dinner and relaxation in the room, and then the after party.  Agreed?”

Rod narrowed his eyes.  “You can’t just skip out on the party.  Everyone was so excited to see you again, Uri.”

“I’m quite capable of doing what I like.”  Uri wagged his fingers at Rod and, tugging Kenny behind him, walked away. He called over his shoulder one last time at his brother.  “Just tell everyone that I’m tired.  They all think I’m a recluse anyway.”

“But you are,” Rod grumbled as his brother and his brother’s lover disappeared into the crowd.  Sighing through his clenched jaw, he leaned into the bar.  Kenny may have been able to help Uri control the darkness that was the coordinate, but his methods would only work for so much longer.  Still, he supposed he could allow this charade as long as the fearsome assassin was enamored with Uri.

 

* * *

 

 

“What exactly is this after party?”

When Uri looked back at Kenny, a sly grin slithered onto his face.

“It’s a special sort of party,” he answered.  “Lord Green has a play dungeon.  We’ll be joining his other special guests in the space tonight.”

Images of other people, touching him, flashed into Kenny’s brain. He shuddered.  “I don’t want to do anything with anyone else.”

“Oh, no, of course, no one else will touch you during the scene.” Uri kneeled beside one of his suitcases and shuffled through its contents.  “Others may watch, but no one else will interact with you once our scene begins.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” Kenny blurted.  He sank down onto the bed.  “I mean, I don’t think I could focus.  It’s not like I want people to see me like that…!”

“You tend to think you cannot do what you think of as dirty or shameful, but you’ve ended up enjoying everything so far.  You’ll be fine.”  Uri laid out a briefcase and transferred articles from the suitcase to the smaller bag. “If necessary, I’ll alter the scene to make it easier to focus.”  He finished packing the briefcase and closed it.  When he rose to his feet, he held out his free hand to Kenny. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. You’re always such a good boy when I ask you to be.”

“Heh, right.” Kenny took Uri’s hand and stood. “So what is this scene that you’re talking about?  It sounds like you already have a plan.”

“Oh, of course.”  Uri tugged Kenny toward the door.  Together, they crossed the threshold and started down the hallway of the hotel. “It’s very simple. I’m going to ask you a question, but you shouldn’t tell me the answer.”

Kenny raised a dark brow as he followed Uri into the stairwell. “Why wouldn’t I tell you the answer? If you ask me a question, I’ll answer it without fail.”

“It’s something you don’t want me to know about you.”  The darkness of the stairwell obscured Uri’s face. “You haven’t been completely honest with me.”

Kenny stiffened his spine and stumbled down two steps at a time, clipping Uri’s heels with the toes of his boots.  “So you wait until now to tell me that you aren’t happy with me?”

“I’m not saying that I’m not happy with you.  I’m saying that you haven’t been completely honest with me.” Uri descended the last of the stairs and exited the stairwell.  He quickly spun on his heels to face Kenny when he approached the threshold of the door. “Tell me: do you know what I’m talking about?”

Kenny had an idea, but he thought it best to feign ignorance.  “I don’t know, Uri.  You know I’m not good at hiding things from you. Remember how easily I told you about the council who had wanted you dead?”

A smirk danced on Uri’s lips.  “Yes, but you were in fear of your life then.  Is that what it takes to make you tell the absolute truth?”  Before Kenny could speak, he turned away and stepped into an antechamber, only large enough to hold two chairs within its windowless crimson walls. Across from the doorway to the stairwell was a more elaborate gilded doorway.  “Heh, anyway, we can talk later.  Would you mind waiting here for a moment?  I have to get changed into something more comfortable, and I’ll be right back.”

Huffing, Kenny stepped into the room and leaned against the wall. He crossed his arms and legs. “That’s fine.  I just don’t know why you have to be a fucking asshole like that. I told you already… you know everything there is to know.  I don’t even know why you feel the need to bring it up.”

“And I told you: I’m going to ask you a question, and you’ll try your best to not answer it.  If there is no answer, then you don’t have to worry about answering it.  Understood?”  Uri walked to the gilded doorway and placed his hand upon the door handle. His blonde hair concealed his face even when he looked over his shoulder.  “You left your knife in the room, correct?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Well, some other people will be coming through here in a few minutes. I don’t want you to be surprised or anything.”  Uri shoved open the heavy door and stepped into darkness.  Right before the door closed between him and Kenny, he said, “From here on out, you’ll stay in character, and so will I.  I’d tell you to be good while I’m away, but that wouldn’t suit your role.  Until I say the word _red_ , you will commit to the scene.”

Once Uri had left him alone, Kenny rolled his head back against the cool wall. At first, he managed to keep his mind clear, but as the minutes passed, anxiety squeezed at his heart. What the fuck had Uri thought that he hadn’t told him?  Kenny grimaced—could Uri have wanted to know if he knew anything at all about the distant branch of his family that had disappeared long before his time? As far as Uri knew, that branch was for whom Kenny had asked protection from extermination.  Nothing—or nothing that Kenny could think of—should have hinted at a living relation closer to him.  After all, as far as he knew, his sister, Kuchel, had abandoned her birth name in favor of obscurity…

So preoccupied in his thoughts, Kenny didn’t notice when the gilded door opened once more. Even when a group of people suddenly flooded the room, he only took notice when he saw their khaki trench coats and the emblem of the Military Police upon their breasts. He must have gotten lazy in the past three months because he hadn’t even thought to react by the time the soldiers grabbed him.  Instead, he was so taken aback that he couldn’t move.

“Hey, wait!” he snapped.  “Back the fuck off! I’m under the protection of the true king!”

If his quick count were correct, there were ten of them, filling the antechamber so he couldn’t move away.  After a split moment of panic, an epiphany struck him—he hadn’t seen any Military Police officers at the party, and trained soldiers wouldn’t have giggled as they grabbed his arms and legs.  When he took another look around the room, he thought he recognized the pudgy face of Lord Green among the group.  Before he could confirm his suspicions, however, he lost his balance and fell to his knees when the crowd bowled him over.

“Hey, fucking stop!” he snarled, trying to return to his feet from his knees. “You got me with the disguises… now back the fuck off before I have to involve Lord Reiss!”

“This is not a game,” one of the royals said, in spite of the giggling around her. She tugged at the collar around his neck and quickly removed it.  “Lord Reiss has revoked his protection and has ordered your arrest.”

Of course, it was a game.  Uri had told him to stay in character right before his sudden departure, after all. Even then, even knowing that it was a game, even knowing that Uri had masterminded the scene, fear gripped Kenny’s heart.  Even if he had never told Uri explicitly, he had to have known that Kenny’s greatest fear was the revocation of the crown’s protection.  His eyes blew wide with panic.  What if it really wasn’t a game?  He could have fought back and could have easily escaped, but to hurt these playful royals in any way could have really negated Uri’s protection.  Sucking in a deep breath, he forced his muscles to relax and allowed the royals to grab him.

“Fine, you fucking weirdos,” he grumbled.  “Just let me get up—“

Before he even finished speaking, someone from behind threw a burlap sack over his head. Greedy hands grabbed his arms and hoisted him to his feet.  Hardly allowing time for him to regain his balance, the royal hooligans shoved him in the direction of the gilded doorway.  Once through that doorway, however, he may as well have been in another world. No light penetrated the burlap, leaving him in complete darkness, but the royals kept a tight grip on him and directed his cautious steps.  By the sounds of his footfalls, he guessed that he was in a spacious, open chamber. When the group suddenly stopped, he accidentally trampled over someone’s feet, their surprised yelps of pain reaching his ears.

“Don’t move, or you’ll be subject to a harsh punishment!” the same woman as before said in his ear.  Kenny thought her words were more “cute” than anything—then again, he thought to himself, Uri was the master of words, and all others just sounded like empty threats in comparison to his.

“Right, right, I got it,” he muttered, slightly muffled by the burlap sack. “I won’t move.”

Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, someone tore off his dinner jacket. A chorus of giggles rose up around him as hands groped at his arms, feeling the curves of his biceps and deltoids. A loud tapping sound cut off the royals’ playful giggling, and with their attention refocused, they set to work on restraining him.  Someone crossed his arms behind his back and tied them in place while others secured a rope harness around his chest, hips, and his left leg.  He couldn’t quite tell what the end goal of the harness was until suddenly the ropes around him tightened, and he pitched forward, as if he were being lifted into the air by a pulley, attached to his restraints. When only the very tip of his right boot touched the floor, the ropes were secured, and he was left to hang helplessly as the group backed away from him.

Minutes passed slowly when silence fell upon his thundering ears. Feeling as if he were precariously balanced on the tiptoe of his right foot, he held himself as still as possible. Suspension wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable physically as other positions he had been tied up in the past, but his blood ran cold when he, unable to move, realized how truly helpless was he. Then he heard the distant clicking of heels against the hollow wooden floor, and when someone approached and stopped in front of him, his heart stopped in his chest.

“Oh, hmmm.” Uri’s dulcet voice reached Kenny’s ears. “You must be getting careless if my soldiers were finally able to capture Kenny the Ripper.”

Kenny opened his mouth to respond, but when the burlap sack was torn away, he lost his train of thought.  As his eyes readjusted to the muted light, just enough for him to see the immediate area around him and Uri, his gaze—blurry at first but then focused—settled on the king. A cloak draped across Uri’s shoulders and concealed his body beneath the thick velvet fabric. Uri smirked back at his victim and folded his arms across his chest.

“Your bloodline is very dangerous,” he said.  “Ackermans are as close to superhuman as it gets.  For your crime of existing, you should be put to death.” Darkness twinkled in his eyes. “However, I quite like you. I’ll give you an opportunity to save yourself. Answer my question, and you’ll go free.”

If anything, Uri was committed to the scene.  Unlike the royals who giggled in the darkness out of sight, he embodied his role and refused to break character.  During the first few play-scenes, of course, he had broken character only either to direct Kenny’s actions appropriately or to assuage Kenny’s fears. Now, after many erotic sessions, he fully expected Kenny to keep up and to stay in character as well. Kenny nodded slightly, careful to not knock himself off balance.

“Heh… okay, just ask me the question.  I have no reason to lie to you.  Then you’ll let me go, right?”  He struggled, testing his bonds.  “Go ahead. Ask me.”

“Oh, is it really so simple?”  Uri pressed his lips together tightly.  For a moment, he hesitated but then he finally spoke.  “Tell me… what is the name of your younger sister?”

Kenny blanched, and his face fell.  “What are you talking about?”

“You have a sister, right?”  Uri paced around Kenny, his heels clicking against the hollow floor.  “Most families have two children for the sake of preserving humanity and their bloodline.  At least tell me her name.  Just her name… and I’ll let you go.”

Uri wasn’t fucking around this time.  It was typical of him to ask Kenny questions without answers if he wanted free reign to beat him until he exhausted himself.  Hell, Uri had once interrogated him in a lost language and pretended to not speak the same language just so there couldn’t be an answer. This, however, was different. This was a question with purpose, and there was an audience somewhere.  If he had wanted to unnerve Kenny, he had definitely succeeded. Still, Kenny twisted his lips into a grin.

“I don’t have a fucking sister,” he said.  “My parents couldn’t stand to have another hellion like me.  That’s why they dropped me at Gramps’ house and never came back.”

“If only that were true.”  Uri tugged at the cloak’s tie at his clavicle.  “I’ll ask nicely one more time.  What is the name of your little sister?”

Kenny breathed in sharply.  Had Uri known that he had lied about his family the entire time?

“My family is dead,” he snarled.  “Even if I had a sister, it wouldn’t matter.”

“If it doesn’t matter, just tell me.”  There was something sinister about his murmuring voice.  “Tell me her name.”

“I don’t have a fucking sister!”

“Oh, hmmm. That is a problem.”

Uri released the tie of his cloak and allowed it to fall silently to the floor in a heap. Beneath his cloak, he wore a black vinyl strapless romper suit, fishnet tights on his clean-shaven legs, and stiletto pumps.  Kenny blushed at the sight of his cross-dressed lover.

“What are you wearing…?”

“It’s no concern of yours,” Uri replied.  He hobbled over to Kenny and brushed his gloved hand along his beau’s jaw. “Now, your clothes on the other hand…” He waved his other hand toward the darkness, and a small, wheeled cart propelled into the light and bumped gently against his hip.  He reached down and picked up a pair of scissors.  “I’m so sorry in advance for what I must do to your lovely suit.”

Before Kenny could protest, Uri snipped through his dress shirt, shredding it with the scissors.  Once all but the sleeves, protected by the ropes, had been stripped away, the scissors ravaged his pants and underwear, leaving the victim completely exposed. When Uri took away his boots, Kenny no longer felt the floor beneath his toes.  His heart slammed against his chest when his last sliver of control was snatched from him.

“You will not be gagged, so you may volunteer the answer to my question at any time,” Uri said.  “If the stimulation ever becomes too much, you have the power to stop it—just answer the question.”

“But there is no answer,” Kenny stuttered.

“Oh? That’s too bad. I guess you’ll have to take the punishment like a good boy, then.”

Without another word, Uri turned to the wheeled cart once more, and Kenny snorted in amusement when he stumbled slightly in his five-inch stilettos. For a moment, Uri wiggled his fingers and considered the items on the cart, and then finally he picked up two wooden clothespins and a riding crop.  At Uri’s approach, Kenny wriggled in his restraints, his bare skin chafing against the ropes.  Now standing beside his victim, Uri brushed one hand across Kenny’s burning chest. Kenny shuddered when the cool, gloved fingertips teased his nipples, hardening at Uri’s touch.

“Do you want me to touch you?”  Uri licked his lips. His fingertip flicked across one hardened nipple.  “I didn’t realize that the Ripper was such a little slut.”

“Your gloves are cold as fucking ice… of course I’m going to react!” Kenny struggled against his bonds and moaned when Uri tweaked his nipple.

“Heh, okay, I can see that.”

Uri took a clothespin and brushed the wooden tip against one nipple. When Kenny recoiled instinctively, he snickered.

“This isn’t cold, is it?  So being touched like this does excite you…”  Uri lightly rubbed circles around the nipple with the clothespin.  A grin split his face.  “Do you know what I’m going to do with this?”

“I don’t know—hang your clothes to dry?” Kenny muttered.  “I mean, your clothes must have been ruined and needed to be washed. That’s the only reason why you would wear that silly outfit.”

Uri’s eyes lit up at his words.  “Oh, I do look forward to putting you in your place, naughty boy.”  He squeezed the top of the clothespin and hovered the prongs above the nipple.  After a moment, keeping his gaze on Kenny’s face, he released his grip on the clothespin, and the prongs bit down sharply on the tender flesh.  When Kenny gasped loudly, the sudden pressure sending shockwaves of pain through his body, Uri snickered.  When he clamped the second clothespin on the other nipple, Kenny squirmed and chomped down on his lip.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he grunted.  “That actually really fucking hurts…”

“Once the endorphins are released, you’ll be fine.”  Uri kissed Kenny’s forehead and walked around him, now out of sight. “Besides, it’s not supposed to feel nice… it only feels nice for you because you’re a slut for pain.”

Kenny tried to look back at Uri, but his restraints didn’t allow him to move enough to see him, standing behind him.  When he felt the cool leather upon his unbound right leg, dangling freely below him, he flinched.  Another chuckle rose in Uri’s throat as he glided the riding crop along the back of Kenny’s thigh and to his butt.

“It’s cute how sensitive you are,” the blonde whispered.  “I’m going to enjoy making you squirm.”

By the way Uri talked, Kenny wasn’t sure if he actually expected an answer to his question.  If he had actually wanted to know, he wouldn’t have been so carefree or flippant. Kenny swallowed nervously. As long as he could handle whatever Uri dealt out, he wasn’t in any danger of betraying the truth. If it became too much, however…

When the crop snapped against his ass, his reverie shattered.  His senses flickered to life as the slight sting rang through his body.  Kenny sucked in a deep breath and stiffened his hips.  The next smack on his ass was just a fraction harder although not quite enough to actually hurt him, but the shockwave connected with the stinging sensation in his nipples.  Still, he tried not to move for fear that he might pitch forward.  Uri chuckled and kneaded the flesh of Kenny’s bound thigh, raised parallel to the floor.

“Is the Ripper really such a pain slut?” he muttered.  “If you are, then maybe I should see how much pain you can take.”

What Uri had actually asked was if it was okay to keep going. Kenny’s stomach churned pleasantly despite the stinging of his flesh.

“Yeah, okay,” he whispered.  “I’d like to see you try to break me.”

“Oh, you want me to break you?”  Uri bent down and kissed along the inside of Kenny’s trussed thigh.  Kenny felt the smirk on his lips, growing ever larger. “You’re supposed to be my victim. I shouldn’t do what you want me to do.”

Kenny blushed furiously.  “It’s not like that…!”

“Oh, no?” Uri caressed Kenny’s reddened flesh with the crop.  “Could it be that you may not be like that, but your body betrays you?  Heh… cute.”

The crop lifted up and away from his skin for just a moment before it came down hard on his ass.  The echo of the smack ricocheted through the darkness.  Then, after another short pause, Uri flicked his wrist and brought the crop down over and over again.  As the leather snapped against his ass, the burning spread up through his body, intensifying with each strike.  For as long as he could manage, Kenny held his breath until finally he cried out. Upon hearing his wanton gulps, Uri took a pause from his whipping.

“Oh, what was that?” he cooed.  “It seems as if the Ripper is actually in pain.  Is that it, or is it something else?”  He trailed the crop down between his legs and nudged his swollen cock. Kenny jumped in surprise at the sudden touch. “Is the pain that enjoyable for you?” He brushed the crop along the head and collected the accumulated precum.  “How dirty.  Are you really such a pain slut?”

“I told you, it’s not like that at all…!”

Uri suddenly stepped around him and stood in front of him.  Before Kenny could react, Uri shoved the end of the crop in his open mouth.  He recoiled when his tongue touched his own precum, bitter in his mouth.  Uri grinned.

“Are you sure?”  His eyes lit up. “Perhaps you like the pain, but maybe it’s hard to cope with how it makes you feel.”  He reached down and flicked one clothespin. “Maybe you want to answer my question now before you enjoy yourself too much.”

Kenny pushed the crop out of his mouth with his tongue.  “I already told you… I don’t have a sister! Your question doesn’t have a fucking answer.”

“Oh, hmmm. That’s not quite the answer I’m looking for.  I shouldn’t reward poor behavior, but… I can’t help but give you the punishment that you want.”

Uri grasped the clothespin and tugged down, although not with enough force to dislodge it. Kenny yelped quietly, trying to still his shaking.  After a moment had passed, with his gaze locked on Kenny’s face, Uri yanked free the clothespin, a sickening snap from the wooden prongs coming together once more. When the pain exploded across his nipple, Kenny yelped, his body crumbling like his resolve. The pain rang throughout his body, pooling in his belly and swelling in his cock.  Uri chuckled quietly.

“I admire your willingness to accept punishment.”  He dropped the clothespin on the wheeled cart nearby. “Is it because you think you deserve it? Maybe it’s the only way you can get off… is that true?”

“I keep telling you… it’s not like that!”

“Oh, no?”

Uri grabbed the other clothespin, and Kenny flinched.  When he pulled gently, his victim puffed up his chest and pressed against his bonds.  For a minute or two, Uri held his grip until finally he jerked away the second clothespin from the nipple.  Kenny shuddered in his restraints and bit down sharply on his lip, trapping his cries in his throat.  Redness spread across his pectorals as the pain stung his nipples.  Uri tossed aside the clothespin, grasped Kenny’s chin, and peered into his twisted face.

“How about now?” he asked.  “Do you have an answer to my question, or shall I continue whipping that pert little ass of yours?”

Kenny breathed in sharply through his nose.  “Do your fucking worst, your highness.”

“Oh, an open invitation?  I’ll gladly oblige.”

Without further ado, Uri released Kenny’s chin and stepped beside him, a perfect place to both spank his ass and watch the flickering of pain and excitement in his face. Taking his time, he touched the crop to his ass once more.  For a long moment, the leather tip traced circles into the reddened flesh, following along the curve of his ass.  The anticipation nearly drove Kenny mad, his insides twisting and churning. When Uri lifted the crop away, Kenny tensed all over and awaited the blow to his bottom.  Instead of bringing it down hard, Uri lightly swatted his butt. Out of frustration, Kenny writhed and kicked, his right foot desperately pawing at the floor.

“Goddammit it!” he roared.  “Just do it already!”

“Watching you squirm is the fun part, though.”  Uri tapped his butt with the crop.  “I didn’t expect the Ripper to beg for punishment.  It’s cute how you need to be spanked.”

“It’s not like I need it… I just need you to get it over with!”

“Heh, if you insist.”

Without delaying any further, Uri raised the crop and whacked Kenny’s butt, a satisfying smack echoing through the air.  His senses coming alive with a new wave of endorphins, Kenny sucked in a gasp. After a short delay, Uri, moving only his wrist, brought the crop down, each strike harder than the last. At first, the spanks stung, but soon the pain transformed into familiar euphoria.  With each strike, Kenny, breathless, bucked his hips against the ropes, trying desperately to meet the crop part way.  Uri hummed his amusement.

“You really are quite the pain slut,” Uri said.  His hand brushed between Kenny’s legs and wrapped itself around the swollen cock. “You like being whipped and spanked, don’t you?  If I kept it up long enough, maybe the pain might make you cum.”

Kenny had been completely fine with that until a chorus of excited giggles rose from the darkness.  Then his stomach churned more painfully.  For just a short time, he had forgotten about their audience, but now, as his eyes better adjusted to the darkness of the area immediately surrounding him and Uri, he swore he could see the mob of royals outside the halo of light.  He wriggled his hips and moaned quietly.

“Please, don’t…”

“Don’t do what?”  Uri loosened his grip. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t when people are watching,” he gasped.  “I can’t do it… I can’t focus—“

Even before he could finish the thought, Uri stepped in front of him and slapped him hard across the face.  Tears stung in Kenny’s eyes, even if the slap didn’t hurt much.  Darkness crossed Uri’s eyes.

“It’s not up to you what I do or what I make you do.”  Uri gripped his chin hard and forced his head toward him. “The only way to stop me is to answer my very simple question.  What is your little sister’s name?”

Kenny shouldn’t have been surprised that Uri wouldn’t break character, even now. Still, in a strange way, it had emboldened his resolve to continue the scene, and he pushed the thoughts of the audience out of his mind.  He gritted his teeth.  “I told you already… She doesn’t exist.  I don’t have a sister!”

“Oh, I get it.”  Uri sniggered and backed away. “You want me to continue to punish you, don’t you?  Okay then. I’ll oblige you just a bit more, but now I’ll do as I please.”

When Uri let go of his chin, Kenny dropped his head between his shoulders. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Uri, setting aside the crop and picking up a small jar. When Uri dipped his fingers into the jar and lubricated them up to the second knuckle, Kenny squirmed.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m doing as I please.”  Uri turned toward Kenny once more, his gloved forefinger and middle finger slick with lubricant. “Normally, I would tease you and not allow you to cum, but I want to try something else this time. Let’s see how well you handle it.”

“What…?”

Without another word, Uri walked out of Kenny’s sight and stood directly behind him. Kenny wriggled and gasped when Uri brushed his fingertips along the curve of his ass and to his hole, the lube cold to the touch.  Gently, Uri slid one finger inside.  Kenny jerked against his restraints and cried out.

“Oh? Your insides are already twitching,” he cooed.  He pushed his second finger inside and then moved his fingers back and forth. “This must be what you really wanted. Imagine the surprise when everyone discovers that the fearsome Ripper is such a slut for being fucked like a dirty whore.”

“St-stop…” Kenny’s unbound leg kicked weakly at the air.  His hips trembled as Uri thrust his fingers in and out.  “I don’t want to be teased any more…”

“Oh, you don’t want to be teased?”  Uri’s free hand once more wrapped itself around Kenny’s cock, pulsating beneath his touch. “Should I make you cum?”

“Yes, please…”

“Please? Okay, since you asked so nicely, I’ll do as you’ve asked.  But you should really consider an answer to my question…”

“There’s no answer, and that’s not going to change,” he groaned. “There’s no point in constantly asking.”

“Oh, we’ll see just as soon as I find your sweet spot.  Then let’s see how your answer changes.”  Uri curled his fingers and felt along the inside of Kenny. He smirked when his fingertips brushed the prostate, causing Kenny to wriggle more.  “Oh, there we are.  It’s so easy to find… One would think it wants to be touched…”

Kenny had been prepared to speak, but Uri tightened his grip on his erection. As he rubbed up and down the shaft, precum spilling down and slicking his vinyl glove, gently he prodded at the twitching prostate.  Teased both inside and out, Kenny moaned and shifted his hips into a more comfortable position to better accommodate Uri’s touch.  His breath hitched in his throat as the warm pressure built up inside of him. Uri, relentless in his strokes and caresses, snickered when Kenny bucked his hips against his fingers.

“What a dirty slut you are,” he cooed.  “You’re about to cum, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Kenny said, his voice cracking only slightly at first.  Once he spoke, however, lewd whimpers overtook him. “Please, let me cum…”

“Heh… it doesn’t take you long at all, does it?  Well, I suppose not if you’re touched the right way.”  Uri focused his touch on the sensitive prostate. “Go ahead… cum for me. I want you to cum.”

Kenny held his breath.  It wasn’t like Uri to so easily allow him an orgasm during a scene or punishment. He had wanted to ask why, but before he could manage the words, the pressure in his belly released. Quivering against his restraints, he cried out as ecstasy washed over him.  His cum spurted across the hardwood floor below him, the remainder spilling over onto Uri’s gloved hand.  With a loud exhale, he crumpled, his body slowly relaxing and numb with fulfillment. Uri, however, continued to tease his insides, his fingers never stopping their firm caress.  When the stinging heat returned to his belly, Kenny flailed against his restraints.

“Wh-what are you doing?” he stuttered.  “I already came…!”

“How about this?” Uri whispered, darkness glittering in his eyes.  “I’ll stop when you answer that simple question. Is that not fair?”

Kenny’s thundering heart fell as a blush rose in his cheeks.  What did Uri expect of him now?  Wasn’t it impossible to do any more without a break? Still, even as he thought it, a mild pressure built quickly at the base of his spine.  Before he could even process what happened, the pressure released. Another wave of ecstasy flooded his senses, although it was not nearly as strong as the first time. His eyes blew wide—it occurred so quickly that his erection hadn’t even returned.  Quickly, he bit down on his tongue and suppressed his cries.

“Good little slut,” Uri said through his smirk.  “That’s very good, but you can do more than that.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Kenny gasped.  His muscles twitched and tensed beyond his own control.  “It’s too much…!”  Again, he clenched down on Uri’s fingers as another weak pressure released in his belly.  His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he cried out mindlessly.  “Stop!  K-Kuchel! Her name is Kuchel!”

Uri froze. “Huh?”

“Y-you said you would stop as soon as I told you her name,” Kenny stuttered. “My sister… her name was Kuchel. It’s not like I know where she is or if she’s even alive, but…”

For a long moment, Uri didn’t speak.  Kenny’s heart stopped.  After all, Uri must have thought there was no answer to his question.  He gulped loudly at first but then he smirked and chuckled.

“Oh, so that is your breaking point?  Really, you should work on your endurance.”  Slowly, Uri slid out his fingers and backed away.  He trudged over to the wheeled cart, picked up a small towel, and wiped off his vinyl gloves, coated in lubricant and cum.  He faced away, hesitant to look back at Kenny. His bare shoulders trembled in spite of the confidence in his voice.  “Okay, very good.  Very good. I did promise to release you in exchange for answering my question.  Let’s discuss the terms of your release.”

Kenny didn’t have to see Uri’s face, shielded by his blonde hair, to know that he had caught Uri off-guard.  Breathlessly, he gazed at Uri’s back through his mussed hair, soaked with sweat. He had to reclaim the scene somehow.

“Heh, will you actually release me?” he muttered.  “I may attack you in your sleep for all you know.  If you’re going to completely dominate me, you really shouldn’t go just halfway.”

“Oh? Hmmm, so you want me to completely dominate you.”  Uri’s face lit up. He reached toward a lever on the floor, previously unnoticed by Kenny.  “Brace yourself.”

“Eh? For what—?”  Kenny yelped when suddenly the ropes slackened. With a thud, he landed in a heap on the floor, a tangle of rope and limbs.  When he rolled over onto his back, he saw Uri, hovering over him and clutching a knife and the familiar red leather collar.  Uri kneeled on the floor beside him and slipped the knife between Kenny’s hot flesh and the silk ropes around his chest.

“You’re already completely and totally mine,” he said.  “All of you belongs to me.  I couldn’t possibly dominate you any more than that.” He licked his lips and sawed through the ropes, falling away.  “So I’ll cut you loose, drag you back to my room, and fuck you like a dirty whore. Even when you can’t stand it any more, you’ll beg for more because you’re an insatiable slut.” His other hand secured the collar around his neck before it seized Kenny’s chin and turned his face toward him. “Heh… your cheeks are very _red_.  Are you really so embarrassed?”

With the code word, Uri had ended the scene.  When he untied the ropes, Kenny arched his back, stretched his limbs, and sat upright, a sigh of relief escaping his lips.  There was some commotion and grumbles from the darkness, but silence fell when Uri’s gaze turned upon the hidden group. Uri fetched a robe and draped it across the shoulders of his beau, and without even thinking, Kenny clasped his hand over Uri’s.  Uri rubbed circles into the tense deltoids beneath his grasp.

“Are you able to get up on your own?” Uri whispered.

“Yeah, I’m fine.  I can move.”

“Good.” Uri slipped his hand from beneath Kenny’s touch.  He picked up his own cloak from the floor and covered himself.  “Let’s go back to the room.  Is there anything you would like right now?  Maybe something to eat or a hot bath?”

Kenny struggled to his feet and pulled the cloak tightly to his body. “Maybe in the morning.”

With a small smile, Uri turned to Kenny once more.  “Come then.  I’ll treat you well for being such a good boy.”

Without even acknowledging the hidden audience, they left the large chamber, hand in hand.  Once back in their quarters in the hotel, they stripped and cleaned themselves off before collapsing together on the bed, beneath the blankets, entwined in each other’s embrace. For a long while, they lay in silence, but then Uri, curled up against Kenny’s chest, looked up and touched Kenny’s cheek.

“I wasn’t too hard on you tonight, was I?” he asked.  “Maybe it was the wrong choice to try something so different on you in that situation.  You’re okay, right?”

“Of course, I’m okay,” Kenny said, nuzzling Uri’s blonde hair.  “I could have easily escaped those royal brats’ shoddy ropework if I had needed to do so.”

“Heh, I thought so.  It was quite shoddy, but it worked well enough for my purposes.”

“What about you?”  Kenny pulled Uri tighter against his chest.  “Are you okay? You didn’t get off. Should I remedy that?”

“You don’t have to.”  Uri tapped his fingers along Kenny’s sharp jawline.  “Maybe in the morning when I’m not so tired… unless you’re really so desperate to be fucked.  Then you have permission to ride my cock.”

“Oh, I’m the desperate one?”  Kenny nudged his thigh between Uri’s legs and pressed it firmly against Uri’s erection, burning hot to the touch.  “I’m not the one with a raging hard-on from cuddling.”  A playful smirk lit up his angular face.  “Do I really turn you on that much?”

“Yes.” Gripping Kenny’s chin, Uri shoved Kenny onto his back and slithered between his legs.  He peered into the grey eyes he loved so dearly. “I’ll take that as an invitation to use your body until I’m satisfied.”

Kenny wrapped his lanky legs around Uri’s thighs and shifted his hips toward Uri. “You could say it like that, I suppose.”

Clutching Kenny’s arms, his fingernails digging into the thick biceps, Uri pressed himself into Kenny.  With a loud gasp, Kenny gripped the sheets and squirmed when Uri thrust his hips and buried his cock deep inside of him.  Uri must have been more desperate than he had let on, because he wasted no time on slow movements and instead rocked his hips quicker and quicker with each passing moment. When his cock hammered on his prostate, Kenny, crying out, arched his back and threw his head back into the pillow. Soon, pleasure overtook them, and they collapsed in a sweaty, breathless heap beneath the blankets. Even then, they curled up against each other, marking necks and shoulders and chests with little kisses, until finally Uri spoke three words that Kenny wasn’t quite ready for.

“I love you,” he blurted.

Kenny wasn’t sure what to say.  _He loves me…?_   Without thinking, one question passed through his lips.  “Why?”

Uri blinked. “Must I have a reason?” Then suddenly, his face fell. He didn’t have to read Kenny’s mind to read the honesty in those grey eyes.  “I thought maybe you would want to know how I felt. It’s not like… it’s not like it’s important if you feel the same.  I couldn’t expect you to feel that way about me.  You’re obligated to be with me, after all.”

Kenny sucked in a sharp breath and tightened his grip around Uri.  “I told you already,” he whispered.  “I’ve never done this before.  Give me some time.”

“Right.” Uri nodded brusquely and buried his face in Kenny’s chest.  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to throw you off-guard.”

“No, it’s okay,” Kenny said, running his fingers through his hair. “It’s just… no one has ever said that to me.”

Uri looked up, his eyes overflowing with tears and darkness.  “That makes two of us then.”

Kenny would have spoken, would have tried to comfort him, but Uri had already rolled away from him, his back now facing him.  When he moved to curl up against his back, Uri reached behind him and shoved Kenny away.  With a dejected sigh, Kenny stared up at the ceiling.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he muttered, but he knew that Uri didn’t hear him. His stomach churned. “You’re allowing that thing inside of you too much control.  You give in too easily to these mood swings.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Uri said, muffled by the sheets over his face. “I’m not strong like you.”

“But you are strong—“

“Stop talking, and go to sleep.”

But Kenny couldn’t sleep.  Hours passed as he stared at Uri’s back and listened to Uri’s fitful breathing. Perhaps he should have given more credit to Rod earlier when he spoke about Uri’s bipolarity. _“How will you handle the coordinate when it decides to take over Uri for days on end?”_   The words bounced around his mind; the sinking feeling swirled in his stomach. Still, he wasn’t at all like Rod. Rod didn’t care for Uri like he did.

In the early hours of the morning, Kenny swore to himself that he would never leave Uri’s side, that he would never abandon him. Then again, his promises were never meant to be kept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((I'M SORRYYYYYYY FOR THOSE SUDDEN FEELS))
> 
> So sorry this took so long to update! I had to transfer to another store temporarily since they lost their entire management team, and I'm training a bunch of new managers.
> 
> Be sure to follow my tumblr blog **@caitybelle-ackeryandere** for frequent updates on how the next chapter is coming along as well as bonus scenes (what I like to call "interludes") under the **"#reiss immaculate"** tag!
> 
> If you enjoy my writing, please leave nice comments! It really helps me out when I'm struggling to write between work and school. ᕕ( ՞ ᗜ ՞ )ᕗ


	6. Empyrean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uri struggles to cope with his inability to read or control Kenny's mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I had fun with this chapter.
> 
> Since most of my readers are female, I made the voice of the recording feminine. Feel free to headcanon yourself as that voice! (This may seem like gibberish right now, but you'll understand soon enough.)
> 
> More notes at the end.

_“How will you handle the coordinate when it decides to take over Uri for days on end?”_  

Kenny had pondered the answer to Rod’s question for weeks.  He had promised to himself that he would be patient and kind, maybe even caring.  Every time Uri had shown signs of falling prey to the monster inside of him, he had kept that promise, and Uri had returned to him every time in only a matter of moments. However, as time passed, Uri had responded less and less to his efforts.  Now, since the night at the Hotel Cherie, since Kenny had revealed his last secret familial connection, Uri hadn’t asked any more questions of him. In fact, he hadn’t even followed up on the reveal of Kenny’s younger sister.  Kenny would have answered his questions if only he had asked, but the questions never came.

Then one night, four months after that night, seven months into their arrangement, Kenny had found Uri in his office, crying.  Upon his discovery, Uri had fled and had locked himself in his bedroom. Kenny had thought it okay to leave him for the night, but that next morning, when he had returned, the lock had still held fast.  By the time evening rolled around, finally the door had been unlocked.  Hesitantly, Kenny peered into the unlit room. Still in his clothes from the night before, Uri lay in bed, atop the sheets and uncovered.  He didn’t acknowledge Kenny when he approached the edge of the bed.

“Uri, how are you feeling?”

Kenny sank onto the mattress and touched Uri’s clammy forehead.  His heart crumpled when Uri didn’t respond to his touch. Instead, Uri stared at the ceiling, his eyes completely black.  Still, Kenny attempted to reach him.

“You should eat,” he continued.  “You didn’t eat much yesterday.  You must be hungry, right?”

Uri didn’t look to him, didn’t turn his face.  He remained motionless, only his breath moving in his chest. Kenny shook his head and rose to his feet—the least he could do was try, he thought to himself. From the kitchen, he fetched the leftovers of the stew he had made for his own dinner, still warm, and brought a bowl to Uri in his bedroom.  When still Uri remained paralyzed, Kenny propped him upright on pillows. Sitting beside him once more, he held the spoon to Uri’s lips.

“Come on,” he grumbled.  “Eat.”

When his patience wore thin, Kenny nudged the spoon past Uri’s lips and into his mouth. Mindlessly, Uri slurped up the stew. Still, it was progress that Kenny managed to get him to eat at all.  After Uri had finished eating, Kenny set aside the bowl on the dresser, afraid that he might lock him out again if he left.  Then he undressed Uri out of his mussed clothes and dressed him in his pajamas. Thinking maybe he would eventually snap out of it, Kenny as well changed into his nightclothes and curled up in bed with him, wrapping him in his embrace.  He pretended to not notice when Uri began to cry.

Kenny hadn’t realized how tired he had been until he closed his eyes for just a moment and opened them the next morning.  Neither he nor Uri had moved from their original position, curled up tightly in the center of the bed.  When he shifted slightly, Uri turned his head to look up at his face, the filtered morning light gleaming on his soft cheeks.  When Uri curled up against his chest and pressed tightly to him, however, Kenny felt the distance between them.  Even so, he was glad that Uri had returned to himself.  He kissed the top of Uri’s head and muttered into his hair.

“Good morning.”

“So it is morning,” Uri whispered.

Kenny couldn’t help but ask.  “Where did you go?”

“What do you mean?”

“You weren’t here—at least, not mentally.  You were somewhere else.  Where did you go?”

“I couldn’t remember,” he said.  His ears turned red when he lied.  “Maybe my mind went to where your sister is hiding.”

Kenny swallowed nervously.  After some time passed, filled with silence, he spoke again.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he whispered.  “I didn’t know it would hurt you like this.”

“I’m not hurt.  I’m disappointed.” Uri turned his face away and stared blankly at the ceiling.  “You didn’t have to tell me.  I already knew.”

“Then why didn’t you ask me sooner?”  Kenny tightened his grip around Uri and pulled him tighter against his chest. “I would have told you.”

“No, you wouldn’t have.  I didn’t think you would actually tell me then.”  Uri bit his lip and blinked back tears.  “I looked into your family when you asked for their protection.  I mean… if I had to issue the order, I had to know whom to claim under that protection.  I waited and waited for you to tell me about your sister, but you never did.  Her name had never been erased from the records for some reason, so I didn’t know how to ask for her protection.”

Kenny nudged the top of Uri’s head with his nose.  “It wouldn’t make a difference,” he whispered.  “Last time I saw her about seven years ago, I found her in the Underground district.  Like I said, I don’t know if she’s still alive.”  He shifted uncomfortably.  “Back then, I told her she should abort her pregnancy.  She didn’t have much use for me after that. I’ve always known the perfect way to push people away and not much else.”

“You push people away?”  A weak sneer tugged at Uri’s lips.  “Who would have guessed that?”

“Uri, please, I’m trying.  I’ve been trying so hard to open up to you.  I’ve never done this before… I don’t know what it’s like to be completely open.” Kenny shrank away and tore his gaze from Uri.  “I didn’t think it mattered. I’m sorry.  You know that, right?”

Uri sat upright, his hunched form silhouetted by the light of the rising sun. “I can’t know for sure. You’re the only person I can’t read. You’re the only person who can hide everything from me.  You know that’s all I ever think about, right?”

Kenny rose up on his elbow and reached out to touch Uri’s back.  His hand stopped midair and fell against the bed. “Honestly?  Is it not enough that I’ve tried?  Stop penalizing me for things I can’t do anything about. Stop thinking that you don’t have to put any effort into knowing more about me.  I know you can just look at someone else and know everything about his life that you could possibly want to know, but I’m sorry that I’m not so easy.”

“Maybe I’m not so kind,” Uri muttered, “because I can’t quite find it in my heart to forgive you.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”  Kenny bolted upright, his fists already balled up.  “I’ve done nothing wrong.  I told you—I don’t even know if she’s _alive_. It shouldn’t fucking matter if I don’t tell you about someone I don’t even know anymore.”

“It matters.” Uri twitched with barely concealed anger.  “You should know that. You already know that I wish I could know everything about you, so why would you withhold something like that from me? Is it because you want to hold this power over me?”

Kenny threw the sheets off of his body and vaulted out of the bed. “I’m not playing this game!” he growled. “I’m not… I’m not fucking doing this. I _can’t_ do this.  If you’re not happy with me, maybe I should just fucking leave.  Maybe you should just shred that contract and shove it up your ass.”

“You’re not running away from this conversation!”  Still, Uri didn’t move from his place in bed. He just sat there, clutching the sheets in his fists, and stared at Kenny.  “Don’t think I’ll ever forgive you if you run out on me. You’ll regret it.”

Kenny threw open the closet door and snatched up his suit.  Grumbling under his breath, he tore off his pajamas and tugged on his regular clothes.  “I don’t have to take this shit from you,” he huffed.  “I’m done.  If you don’t think you are obligated to respect my right to some goddamn privacy, then I’m gone.”

“Your right to privacy?” Uri roared.  “You gave up all your rights when you attempted to assassinate the true king of these walls!”

“Whatever. If you want to be like that, fine.” Kenny tugged his coat onto his wide shoulders.  “I’ve tried really hard to take care of you, but if you won’t even acknowledge that I made an effort, then I’ll leave.  I’ve got shit to do anyway.”

Suddenly, the anger disappeared from Uri’s face.  Before Kenny could cross the threshold, Uri leapt out of bed and threw his arms around the taller man’s waist.  He pressed his face, streaked with tears, into Kenny’s back.

“Please, I’m begging you,” he cried.  “Please don’t leave me.  I’m so sorry. Just please don’t leave. Please, if you leave me… if you leave me, I’ll die.  Please don’t leave me alone…”

Kenny’s resolve crumbled.  Even so, he stood there for a long while, only the sounds of Uri’s sobs filling the space between them. Hurting Uri shouldn’t have felt so good. Finally, he turned to Uri and wrapped him in his embrace.

“Okay,” he muttered, “then I won’t leave.”  A shaky exhale escaped his lips.  “But if you ever make me feel subhuman without my permission, then I’ll leave, and I’m not bluffing.”

When Kenny told Rod later about Uri’s mood swings, even Uri’s own brother didn’t have any suggestions about how to help him.

“Why should you care?” Rod, seated at the desk in his office, asked. “Aren’t you just biding your time anyway?  This is what you want, isn’t it?  You want my brother to show his vulnerability so you can kill him, right?”

“I don’t plan on killing him,” Kenny said stiffly.  He hovered in the doorway, waiting to be invited in. “I care for him.”

“But you don’t love my brother, do you?”

Kenny held his breath. “No, I don’t love him, but I do care for him.”

“Heh, right.” Rod didn’t bother to look up from his paperwork.  “You know what I think? I think you like that my brother feels so strongly for you, yet you can hold it over his head that you’ll not reciprocate his feelings.”

Even without the power of the coordinate and even with Kenny’s own resistance to that power, Rod saw straight through him.  Kenny furrowed his brow and crossed his arms tightly against his chest.

“Would you blame me?” he whispered.  “Uri holds this boundless strength within him.  He has the potential to change the memory of all living people, to rewrite history as we know it, to perhaps even destroy what threatens to end humanity, yet I can hold this one thing over him.  Would you still condemn me then?  Do you not wish you had that power over him?”

“You’re right.  I wish I had some power over him.”  Rod rose from his desk. “You could use that power to convince him to save humanity, you know.”

“Humanity isn’t worth saving,” Kenny retorted.  “I’ll never ask him to do such a pointless thing.”

Rod sighed sadly.  “And such great power is wasted on you and him both,” he muttered as he picked up his completed paperwork. “Look, Kenny.  I _do_ love my brother, despite our different worldviews, and my brother loves you. If you do anything to hurt my brother—and I don’t care if you’re in the right or wrong—then I will do anything to make it right for him.  If you leave him against his wishes, I will do anything to hunt you down and retrieve you. On the other hand, if he does need a temporary separation, then I will house you in the servants’ quarters as long as it is needed.  If you absolutely need some sort of reprieve, then allow me to help you in that regard—but it will absolutely be on my terms and what I think best for him, not you.”

“I want to help him right now, though.  How should I do that?”

“Just let him do as he pleases.”  Rod shrugged. “Also, you know, it might help if you were a little more genuine in your feelings toward him. I’m almost certain he wouldn’t resent you if you stopped trying to hold that power over him.”

“You’re a fucking moron if you think I could actually love him.”

“And you’re a moron to think that you don’t already love him.” Rod walked around his desk and shoved past Kenny.  “A man like you wouldn’t have stuck around this long if you didn’t love him.”

“Heh… if that’s what you think.”

Kenny’s heart fluttered.  Perhaps Rod was right about this one thing.  Still, the feeling in his chest was as temporary as any other feeling of attachment he had experienced throughout his life.  It wasn’t like he would still feel this way as an old man… right?

 

* * *

 

“Get the fuck out of bed.”

Uri winced when Rod threw open the curtains, light pouring into his eyes. Grumbling under his breath, he rolled onto his side away from the window.  Rod stormed over to Uri’s bedside.

“Do you think I’m fucking around?”  Rod grasped Uri’s shoulders and shook him.  “Kenny may not be able to tell the difference, but I know when you’re actually affected by the coordinate and when you’re just hungry for attention. You’ve been moping around for a week, pretending to be stricken with visions of the apocalypse, just so he’ll fawn over you.  I’m not having any of this shit.  Get the fuck out of bed.”

“When did you get so good at reading people?” Uri muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Why do you care anyway?”

“If you want to make Kenny sweat every once in a while, that’s fine. However, you’re pushing this too far.” Rod pressed his lips into a tight line. “When he figures out your ruse, he’s not going to put up with it any longer.  Now get up.”

“Rod, it’s not just a ruse.”  Uri struggled to sit upright.  His fingers brushed through his mussed hair.  “I mean, yeah, it’s easier for the coordinate to get to me when I lay in bed all day. That’s not a lie. It’s just… I can’t read him. He’s been keeping secrets from me.”

Rod huffed. “Yeah, everyone keeps secrets. I mean, I keep secrets from you.”

Uri’s gaze flickered up to his brother.  “No, you don’t.”

Rod paled. “Sure, I do.  It’s not like you know everything about me.”

“Yes, I do know.”  Uri glanced down at his hands in his lap.  “I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not sorry.  Don’t tell me that you’re sorry that you’ve read my mind for years and then cry about how you can’t know every single one of Kenny’s secrets.”  Rod placed his hands on his hips.  “If it bothers you that much, maybe you should just get rid of him. Don’t you figure that’s why our ancestors tried to eliminate the Ackermans?”

“I’m not like our great-grandfather.”  Uri’s shaking hands curled into fists.  “I’m not cruel. I’m a kind man. I… I really am kind, I swear.”

“Uri, we are not kind men.  There’s far too much blood on our hands to ever claim that we are kind.”

“It’s not like that at all.”  Uri’s shoulders trembled.  “We’ve been pushed to be like this.  It’s not our fault.”

Rod grimaced. “Remind me: where did Kenny go today?”

“Don’t make me answer that question.  You know damn well where I sent him.”

“No, I don’t remember.  Tell me. Tell me in detail. You don’t like secrets, so you must know exactly what he has gone to do.”

Uri preemptively fumbled at the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. “A young child told the children in his town about his father’s theory on the history of the walls. When the Military Police questioned him, he told them the same thing.  I sent Kenny because… because I couldn’t possibly wipe the minds of the entire town…” He swallowed.  “The disappearance of that local school teacher will remind the townspeople of their loyalty to the crown.  It’ll be officially an accident, but I know they’re not so stupid to really believe it.”

“How long do you figure it’ll take Kenny to get back?”

“He’ll be back in a week.  He’s always back in a week.”

Rod bit his lip. “Right.  He’s very good at what he does: killing and taking care of you. He isn’t the best at keeping secrets. He’s a very good hunter, but when hunted himself, he’ll tell all his secrets.”  He reached into his pocket and fished out a crumpled envelope. He held it out to his brother. “Sanes intercepted this letter. It’s the first one he has actually managed to get.  I suppose you’ve preoccupied Kenny so much that he forgot to hide his mail.”

Uri snatched the letter from Rod’s hands.  His face fell.  “Kenny told me that he hadn’t talked at all to Kuchel,” he muttered, reading the address on the envelope.  “He said he didn’t know where she was.  If he can communicate with her…”

“When will you figure it out?”  Rod shook his head as Uri tore open the envelope and scanned the letter. “As long as he knows that he can take advantage of you, and as long as you allow him to hold this power over you, he will do as he pleases.  Stop calling yourself _kind_ , and deal with the situation.  That’s the only way you’ll ever get through to him.”

Uri held his breath as he read the letter.  “Kuchel says she is sick…”

Rod grasped Uri’s wrist.  “Don’t you think Kenny would be very angry with you if you showed him this letter after you so obviously opened it?” he asked.  His dark eyes flashed.  “I’ll have Sanes intercept all of the letters from now on, and I’ll bring them to you. You should really destroy them after you’ve read them.  You want to control him, don’t you?  You can’t allow him to keep stuff like this from you if you expect him to be absolutely loyal to you.”

Uri frowned. “What if something comes of his sister’s illness?  Shouldn’t I tell him in case he needs to take care of her?”

Rod chuckled bitterly.  “If he left to take care of her, do you really think he would come back?  I wouldn’t allow it.  Keep him on a shorter leash if you don’t want him to keep secrets.”

“Right. You’re absolutely right.” Tears fell onto the letter in his hands. “I’ll become stronger. I’ll be in control. I’ll do everything it takes to keep him close.”

“Good. That’s what I wanted to hear.” The elder Reiss brother smirked and spun on his heels.  “We’re having lunch next door in an hour.  I expect you to be dressed and over there with a smile on your face for Frieda. She misses her uncle.”

Uri wiped clumsily at his face with the heel of his hand.  “Fine.  I’ll be over.”

Kenny returned a week later, as expected.  Neither he nor Uri dared to utter the name or fate of their latest victim, but when asked about the man’s child, Kenny told Uri that he had left him to live. After all, he admitted, something about the child’s conviction reminded him of Uri’s strength.

“His father’s death will either destroy his conviction or give his life purpose,” Kenny said, staring off into the darkness, as he curled up with Uri in bed. “Maybe I’ll regret it in the future, but I couldn’t kill him.”  A weak smile tugged at his lips.  “Maybe your kindness is rubbing off on me.”

_Kindness_. Uri didn’t tell Kenny that he thought it was weakness, not kindness.  Still, he craned his head upward and kissed along Kenny’s jawline. “Right,” he whispered. “I’m rubbing off on you.”  
  


* * *

 

   
As king of the walls, Uri had many resources—or at least, he had a connection to many resources through his more social brother.  After he had complained more and more about having no control over Kenny’s mind, finally Rod had snapped under the pressure and had told him about a new phenomenon sweeping through the capital and among the royals: hypnotism.  According to rumors, after the invention of the phonograph (which had been a secret to most of humanity), the capital’s aristocrats had used the new device mostly to listen to music records, but Dr. Henry Schultz, who had singlehandedly perfected the art of hypnotism for therapy, had used the records to prescribe self-hypnosis for his rich patients.

Normally, it took weeks or even months to meet with the doctor, but upon receiving Uri’s request, Dr. Schultz had cleared his schedule and had invited the Titan king to visit immediately.  That day, Uri had preoccupied Kenny with errands and had left for the capital without telling his beau about his meeting.  At first, Uri had pleaded with the doctor to give him an easy fix, but Dr. Schultz had assured him that no such easy fix existed.  After learning of Kenny’s stubborn disposition, Dr. Schultz had decided that the best course of action would be to convince Kenny to share in what he called “an experience.”  When Uri had tried to prod further into what this “experience” could have been, Dr. Schultz had refused to give any further clues, but he had assured Uri that he would be satisfied with the end results.

“Of course,” Dr. Schultz had said, “I can’t force anything upon anyone, in spite of hypnotism’s reputation.  The patient will only do what he wants to do.  The experience is completely voluntary, but it will remove inhibitions.”

The next day after Uri had returned home from his meeting with the doctor in the capital, a package arrived on the doorstep of his villa.  Inside the package was a beautiful brass phonograph, accompanied with instructions to construct and to place the record player in his bedroom. In addition, the doctor had sent a music record.  “Listen to this while sleeping for the next two weeks,” the instructions said on the package. That night, Kenny complained about the music for a few minutes as they lay in bed together, and Uri remembered thinking that he wasn’t sure if he could sleep with the noise. Then, seemingly time dissipated completely as if the night had never even happened, and Uri and Kenny woke the next morning, tangled in the sheets and entwined in each other’s embrace. They both agreed that neither could remember what had happened after they lay down but that it had been the best sleep either of them had had in months.

Exactly two weeks after the arrival of the phonograph, Dr. Schultz sent another package. By that time, Kenny’s interest in the record player had increased, and even without Uri’s prompting, he had religiously set the record every evening at bedtime.  Kenny’s excitement and intrigue in the new record surprised even Uri, who still had no idea what sort of experience the doctor had in store for him and his lover.  The note, which Uri had read alone in his office, had only told him that the previous record should have opened his and Kenny’s minds up to suggestion and that finally they were ready for “the experience.”  Uri wasn’t sure if he was supposed to feel aroused by just the words, but he dismissed the feeling in his belly and crumpled the note.

“What do you mean by _an experience_?”

Uri chewed on his lip, his hand idly rubbing against his elbow.  He shrugged.  “I don’t know,” he muttered.  “I think we’re supposed to just go with it.”

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Kenny nudged his foot against Uri’s hip. A playful smirk tugged at his lips as his toes trailed along the line of Uri’s belly.  “It’s not like you to not know everything,” he said. “We liked the other record, so this one should be more of the same, right?”

“The note described the record as a guided meditation.”

Kenny raised his brow and wrinkled his nose.  He slowly lowered his foot to the floor.  “What sort of meditation?  You said a doctor sent this to you… What kind of doctor is this?”  He laughed nervously.  “I mean, what sort of experience is this really?  Is this just recreational, or are you conducting some experiment?”

“I thought it might be fun,” Uri said, trying his best to avoid the question. “His program was highly recommended by some friends.”

“You don’t have friends.”

Uri narrowed his eyes.  “That’s a bit rude to say to your owner, don’t you think?”

“Not really. I don’t have friends either.”

“Heh. That’s acceptable, I suppose.” Uri turned toward the phonograph. “If you’re ready, I’ll go ahead and start the record.”  He looked over his shoulder, and when he saw Kenny’s nod, he moved the stylus onto the record. He backed away toward the bed as a musical interlude quietly played.  “Let’s see how this works.”

Kenny leaned toward Uri as he sat down on the bed beside him. “I’ll trust you, Lord Reiss,” he whispered, his breath hot on his ear.  “After all, I have no choice in the matter if you ultimately do reprogram me successfully.”

Uri opened his mouth to speak, but then the music faded gently into background noise. A woman’s voice, sickly sweet, emitted from the speaker.  “I want you to sit comfortably on your knees in the middle of the bed, facing each other. Place your palms down on the tops of your thighs.”

“Wasting no time, I see,” Kenny muttered as they moved to follow the instructions, their knees touching the other’s.  “If this gets too weird, I’m not going to be able to focus…”

Kenny fell silent as the woman spoke again, this time instructing them to breathe. “Listen to your body and to my voice as you begin to relax,” she muttered quietly, her voice gentle and soothing. A strange musical cue interrupted her words, and Uri momentarily glanced at Kenny and knew in that moment that he felt it, too—the sudden slackness in their bodies, the lines of their muscles relaxing. As soon as Uri had thought it strange, the thought slipped from his mind, as if emptiness had filled him.

“Breathe in deeply now, filling your chest and lungs,” the woman whispered. “Now slowly let the air out of your chest, completely emptying your lungs.”  After their breathing fell into a rhythm, she asked them to relax their toes and feet, their legs and up their bodies, all the way down to their fingertips, and finally their faces and ultimately their minds.  “You are letting yourself slip deeper and deeper into a calm, peaceful trance,” she whispered from the phonograph.  “As I continue to talk, that heavy feeling will get stronger and stronger, until it carries you into a deep, peaceful state of relaxation.”

Uri looked up for just a split second to Kenny, who stared blankly down at his lap. He tried to ignore the looseness in his own body—certainly, he wasn’t that open to suggestion to have so easily fallen into a trance.  Excitement fluttered in his belly at the very thought of it, however.  He supposed it wouldn’t hurt just this time to let go of all control. 

“Very good,” she whispered.  Another musical cue interrupted her words.  “You are totally and completely open to all suggestion.  You are eager to please, and you are desperate to be pleased. As each moment passes, you fall deeper and deeper into relaxation, the relaxation making you more and more hypnotized.  Deeper, and deeper, and deeper… now, let’s begin.”

Again, the music twanged strangely in the background, and Uri and Kenny both perked upright. Without even being told to do anything, their hands instinctively reached for each other’s clothes, unbuttoning shirts and trousers and stripping each other bare.  Before they could even touch each other, however, the strum of a harp stopped them, their hands hovering over each other’s naked flesh. The woman continued her monologue.

“Keep your hands, palms down, on your lap,” the woman instructed.  “In this moment, my voice is your master, and you will obey. What is my voice?”

“My master,” Uri muttered in tandem with Kenny.  He couldn’t tell from Kenny’s face if he felt the same, but much to his surprise, relief flooded Uri.  After all, just this one time, it would be fine to let someone else think for him.

“And what will you do?”

“Obey,” they said quietly.

“You will obey,” the woman’s disembodied voice said.  “Even if you think you cannot, you will obey. Now, look at him.”

In spite of the fuzziness in his vision, Uri glanced back at Kenny and Kenny back at him. He wondered if his eyes looked like Kenny’s, glazed over but bright, unfocused but attentive. Maybe Kenny didn’t feel any more different than usual—after all, his gaze was no different from how it normally appeared, if not more relaxed.  Only now he began to understand the comfort and release of being under someone else’s control.  It felt good not to think…

“He is worthy of your adoration,” the woman said.  “He is worthy of your worship.  My words will lead you in prayer.”

A musical cue again interrupted her, and Uri instinctively leaned toward Kenny, his lips just short of his.  The mystery woman, whoever she was and wherever she was, spoke again, her words reining them in from going any further than she had allowed.

“With your lips, you worship him.  You desire to worship him more, worship him how he deserves.”

Uri’s gaze flickered down to Kenny’s lap, his cock beginning to swell just the same as his own.  In the corner of his eye, Kenny, his lips slackened into an O-shape, as well stared down at Uri’s lap. Raw hunger flashed across his gray eyes, only serving to arouse Uri further, his arousal only further intensifying that hunger.  The musical cue moved them once more, and they lay on their right sides in the center of the bed and rested their heads on the other’s thighs.

“He deserves your worship like you deserve his worship.  It would feel nice to worship him with your lips and to be worshipped by his lips.”

Again, the musical cue rang from the phonograph, allowing them to move. Uri pressed his lips to the head of Kenny’s cock just as he felt Kenny’s soft lips, brushing gently across his own cock.  Slowly, his lips parted, his tongue hesitantly exploring outside of his mouth and lapping at the sensitive flesh, thudding beneath the touch.  His movements were mirrored by Kenny, as if they had been programmed to act out their worship in tandem to the musical commands from the phonograph. Already, an immense pressure sank in his belly, ready to be released.  He felt it in Kenny, too, his beau’s thighs and hips quivering beneath his own shaky grasp.

“As you worship him, your mind will become empty of all but praising and worshipping him,” the woman said.  “His cock is your god. Pleasing cock is your purpose. If you worship his cock well enough, you will be rewarded.”

Of course, Uri’s thoughts had been preoccupied with Kenny for months—it wasn’t difficult to think of him any more than he already had.  However, all the problematic thoughts slipped from his mind like water through his fingers.  As his lips and tongue gently brushed against the tip of Kenny’s cock, only thoughts of his perfection swirled in Uri’s nearly blank mind.  For just a split second, he hoped Kenny thought the same of him.

With every kiss of their lips or touch of their tongues against the tip, their cocks stiffened and pressed against the soft lips that teased them.  There was, Uri thought, a simple joy, extraordinary bliss, in pleasing Kenny and being pleased by Kenny.  With each passing moment, all thoughts but those of Kenny’s perfection slipped from his emptied mind.  Not even the coordinate could ruin this moment for him…

“Allow yourself to submit to his cock as he submits himself to yours,” the woman continued. “The more you submit, the more you please, the better you feel.  You want to feel it all inside of you, so take more.”

Desperation flashed in Uri’s mind.  Just as he parted his lips to take all of Kenny’s cock in his mouth, he felt the warmth of Kenny’s velvet mouth around the entirety of his own cock. Even as his spine shuddered and the warmth in his belly spread, he focused on his task.  Uri pulled the length of Kenny’s shaft into his mouth, momentarily cursing his girth, widening his gape to accommodate the large cock. Slowly, he brought him to the back of his throat and pulled back again, the precum collecting on his tongue. As he bobbed his head up and down along the shaft, he tried to ignore Kenny, mirroring his movements, albeit at a slightly faster pace.  Still, every time he focused on his task, it only served to reinforce the pleasure that Kenny gave him.  Surely, Kenny felt the same, his insides twitching, his mind preoccupied only with thoughts of making his master feel good, totally and completely enslaved to pleasuring the cock in his mouth.

“You love worshipping his cock and your cock being worshipped by him,” the woman said, her voice breathy but powerful.  “Take it deep over and over again.  He must be leaking in your mouth; that shows you how well you are doing, giving him and his cock what they both deserve.”

By now, Uri could hardly stand the build-up.  Every muscle in his body tensed, awaiting his release.  Surely, he had already approached the edge, but an invisible force held him, suspended, with ecstasy just barely out of his grasp. Certainly, telling from the quivering in his hips, the quaking of his thighs, the curling of his toes, Kenny suffered the same as he.  Still, even as desperation plagued his thoughts, his focus intensified upon his task. As he focused on his task, Kenny gripped Uri’s hips, fingernails digging into his flesh, and sucked harder as well. Deeper they took each other into their mouths, and more the pleasure overtook them.  Even as they melted, their moans muffled against the hard cocks in their mouths, their worship never faltered.

“Take it deep… and out.  Deep… and out. Surrender to his cock. Focus completely on his cock. Make it feel good, and you will feel good.”

Teetering on the edge of ecstatic oblivion, there was no choice but to obey. Even without choice, Uri found himself, wanting to obey—pleasing Kenny pleased him.  With each bob of his head, he fell deeper and deeper into the spell of the phonograph.  Empty and obedient, he sucked and was sucked, faster and faster.  His thoughts shifted from needing release to needing Kenny to achieve release. He needed to taste the pleasure, for it to fill his mouth.  If only he could feel that hot spurt on his tongue, he, too, would likely fall over the edge with his lover, relieved of the immense pressure at the base of his spine. If only that twitching cock in his mouth would just cum for him.

“Certainly at this point, the pleasure is almost too much,” the woman cooed. “I will count down from ten, and only then will you be allowed release, and only then will you be rewarded for your worship.  Even if it feels that you cannot wait any longer, you will obey my voice.”

For just a moment, they paused and awaited the countdown.

“Ten… Keep sucking.”

Once more, their movements resumed, their moans of pleasure quiet in their throats.

“Nine… Keep the mind empty and focused.”

Uri’s focus fluttered between pleasuring Kenny and being pleasured by Kenny. Soon, he thought to himself, his worship would be rewarded with release.

“Eight… You live to worship his cock.”

_Yes_ , Uri agreed, _I do live to worship his cock.  He is perfection.  He is without sin.  He is the only one worth saving in this doomed world_.

“Seven… Take him deep and out, over and over.”

Even this deep into trance, Uri couldn’t stop thinking about what Kenny must have thought about him in that moment.  When he glanced askew at Kenny, contently taking in all of his cock down to the root, he wondered briefly if he felt the same.  In his mind, did Kenny marvel at his perfection, think of him as sinless?

“Six… Suck hard, waiting for his cum to spurt on your tongue, to slide down your throat, filling you.”

Uri salivated at the thought as Kenny’s cock twitched in his mouth. They only had to hold a little bit longer…

“Five… Almost there.  You will be rewarded soon.”

Kenny suddenly cried out, his whimpers reverberating against Uri’s shaft. Uri smirked in spite of his full mouth—knowing that Kenny was just as desperate for his reward made his belly flutter.  As he sucked, his tongue lapped at the sensitive tip, prompting the quaking in Kenny’s hips.

“Four… His cock is ready to blow.  You feel it twitch on your tongue and at the back of your throat.”

Even more than wanting to cum, Uri wanted—no, _needed_ —Kenny to cum.  Already, he could taste it in his mouth, the precum a delicious preview of what was yet to come.

“Three… In just a moment, his cock will reward your worship.  Isn’t your mouth the perfect place to receive his cum?”

The next pause between the counts seemed longer than usual, or perhaps Uri’s desperation had taken over his mind.  He hadn’t realized he had been whimpering wantonly until just that moment.

“Two… Be ready to suck up his cum, careful to not spill a single drop.”

In that moment, an invisible force pushed Uri right up to the edge of orgasm, but still, he hung on the words from the phonograph.  Stillness fell over both him and Kenny, their breaths caught in their lungs, their eyes rolling into the backs of their heads, their cocks ready to blow.  Their stifled moans pleaded for release.

“… _one_.”

All at once, ecstasy flooded their senses as the pressure at the bases of their spines released.  When he felt the hotness of Kenny’s cum on his tongue, Uri shuddered and arched his back, pressing his cock deeper into Kenny’s wet mouth.  His head still swimming, Uri gulped down Kenny’s cum and then rolled over onto his back.  His eyes darted toward Kenny, clutching tightly to Uri’s thighs, slick with sweat, and nuzzling them gently. His hand moved to stroke Kenny’s hair, but when he had thought the spell of the phonograph done with them, the woman spoke again.

“Very good. You have been rewarded for your worship, but there is still more to explore.  You may worship him, and he may worship you; but even so, even in the midst of that constant worship, one must be the benevolent god, and the other must be the humble servant.”

A new musical cue, like the disharmonious twang of an untuned violin string, rang through the air.  Uri had thought it strange that he hadn’t reacted to it, but then he gasped when suddenly he felt Kenny’s strong hands, grasping his hips.  Before Uri could process what had happened, Kenny kissed up the insides of his thighs and down the length of his cock.  Uri sucked in a breath and moved to push him away, but a different tone, that like a buzzing noise, emptied his mind of all thoughts but those of Kenny—perfect, beautiful, _sinless_. Beyond his control, the blood rushed downward once more, his shaft becoming harder and harder with each passing moment. The woman of the phonograph broke through one last time, her last words resonating deeply in their muddled brains.

“Remember your place, humble servant and benevolent god,” she said. “The servant will obey his god, but his god must be worthy of that obedience.”

After those last words, Uri’s consciousness plunged into ecstatic oblivion. The next morning, he and Kenny awoke, entwined in each other’s embrace, their flesh still wet with sweat. Neither of them could remember the exact events of the evening before, although they could recall the raw sensations of pleasure.  When they tried to play the record once more, there was nothing but white noise heard from the phonograph, as if the recording had been erased completely.  On the doorstep of the villa was a small package from Dr. Schultz, and inside was a second musical record, the accompanying note only telling Uri that the music would reinforce the conditioning of the previous record and that his work was done.

Uri hadn’t been sure what would come of the whole experience, but then one night three weeks later, Kenny whispered something unexpected mid-coitus: “I love you.”  If Uri hadn’t paid attention, he might have missed it.  Later, when they curled up beneath the sheets together, the emotions overwhelmed him like his tears.  Finally, Kenny had said what he had always wanted to hear, what he thought he might never have heard ever in his lifetime.

 

* * *

 

 

At the end of the first year, when the contract expired, Uri presented Kenny with a revised contract.  First, Uri had suggested the contract to only extend another year, but then Kenny suggested that it be extended to three years.  Uri wished he could have always seen that spark of devotion in Kenny’s eyes with each and every passing moment, the fire that burned Kenny up on the inside, burning only for him.  Later, when he brought the contract to be reviewed by his brother, Rod asked if he could have power of attorney over Kenny in his absence, whether physical or mental. Uri hadn’t thought too hard about the answer then, but he agreed regardless.

If only he had known that his own brother would do everything in his power to destroy the bond he had so carefully formed between himself and Kenny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, I experimented with self-hypnosis over the past month. IT'S GREAT. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Message me on tumblr if you'd like a link to some really great scripts that not only has the erotic self-hypnosis but also some nifty day-to-day ones as well. Of course, I took some liberties, but still...
> 
> I went to AWA 2015! Check out my tumblr @caitybelle-ackeryandere for pictures of my Kenny (both canon and genderbent versions) and Erwin Smith cosplays (among some other random pictures of my other cosplays).
> 
> If you want to follow progress updates on this fic (and also sometimes some very strange comments and posts that relate loosely to it), follow my "#reiss immaculate" tag on my tumblr.
> 
> Also on tumblr, be sure to follow my Uriken blog @crown-and-dagger !! Some people have requested the return of the weekly prompts, so hopefully by next week I can start that up again (and that means more random one-shots, either fluffy or smutty, depending on my mood).


	7. Incubus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visit to Ovud District reminds Kenny of the crime against Kuchel that took place ten years prior.
> 
> BONUS: "Interlude: Callipygian" at the end of the chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGERS:
> 
> \+ rape mentioned
> 
> \+ victim shaming/blaming
> 
> ((SORRY THIS CHAPTER GOT ACCIDENTALLY DELETED AHHHH))

CHAPTER SEVEN: Incubus

The night Kuchel had come home after being brutally raped, Kenny had known his life would never be that peaceful life on the farm that his grandfather had wanted for him and his sister. He had never forgotten the loud crash on the doorstep, how he had rushed out to find her, collapsed on the porch—her beautiful face streaked with blood and tears, her porcelain skin bruised and dirtied, her dress and bodice cut and torn. Kuchel only had the strength to mutter one word before she had passed out in his arms.

“MP.”

Gramps had told him to allow the justice system to work, but Kenny had already known that his sister would never have gotten justice that way. The next day, at the Military Police Headquarters in town Kuchel had identified the man responsible, a man Kenny had never forgotten—Squad Leader Darren Stinnett. At first, the MPs had been hesitant to allow them to press charges; after all, the government had already created extensive records on the Ackerman family’s history of insubordination. Kuchel must have known already the futility of pressing charges, but Gramps had insisted upon legitimately prosecuting the crime. Kenny had tried his best to believe Gramps’ words that men would get what they had coming to them, but he had already considered that he might have needed to deliver that retribution personally.

The trial had been a sham, as expected. The rapist’s squad mates, who likely had helped him with his crime, had provided Darren Stinnett an alibi. Records had mysteriously disappeared, including records that Kuchel had even been a citizen. At the end of the trial, Darren had been declared innocent of all crimes, and Kuchel had been thoroughly disgraced. As the Ackermans had left the courthouse, a group of young MPs hurled slurs and insults at her. If Kenny had remembered their faces, perhaps he would have killed them, too.

Kenny had known that the trial would end in nothing being done, but he hadn’t anticipated the effects of the ordeal upon Kuchel. For months, she hadn’t left the farmhouse, sitting in her room alone. He had tried to let what had happened stay in the past, but then one night Kuchel had come to his room and had begged him to abuse her like Darren Stinnett had done. “After all, it’s what I deserve,” she had cried, rending her nightgown. “What is my purpose but to be fucked by men?” Kenny had restrained her and had begged her to calm down, but then she had lashed out at him.

“What are you—a fucking faggot?” By then, she had begun to foam at the mouth. “You don’t want to fuck me—you must want to be fucked like a whore, too. That’s all we are, aren’t we? Both of us… we’re dirty, fucking whores.”

By that point, Gramps had heard the commotion. He had been more successful at calming down Kuchel. She had said Kenny was like a statue, unmoving, uncaring, only staring on in judgment. If only she had known then about the fire inside of him, what he had decided he must do. She hadn’t known that he had been stalking Darren Stinnett for weeks, had memorized his every habit and his every move. All that had been left had been to make the bastard pay for his sins.

The night of his retribution, Kenny had donned a long khaki trench coat and a matching fedora, masking him in shadows. When he had found Darren Stinnett in a dark alleyway late in the twilight hours, he had been drunk to the point of incoherence, daring to spout off bullshit about his sister to his face. Upon seeing the knife in his hand, however, he had quickly sobered up. After a short scuffle, Kenny had easily overpowered him and had knocked him down to the cobblestone pavement, his boasts of fucking his sister quickly turning to pleading for his pathetic, worthless life. Without wasting any time, he had slashed the MP’s throat. Never again could this man have disparaged his sister’s name. As Darren had choked on his blood, Kenny had plunged his blade over and over again in his chest. Even after the man had certainly perished, Kenny had not been able to stop himself, carving flesh, spilling his insides, disfiguring his face, dismembering the body. After all, if he could no longer recognize Kuchel after his crime against her, why should this man have remained recognizable to his loved ones after Kenny’s crime against him?

When the Military Police had arrived at the farmhouse’s doorstep promptly the next morning, Kenny had anticipated their suspicion, which was why he had burned the bloodied clothes, had polished his knife of all blemishes, and had secured himself an alibi. After all, Gramps had insisted to the MPs, Kenny had worked hard on the farm during the day and had gone to bed early the night before. Of course, the MPs had had no proof, so no arrests had been made. Still, Gramps had known what Kenny had done. Kenny hadn’t understood then why Gramps had been so upset with him, but then he hadn’t known about the Ackermans’ struggle to survive in this cruel world. Kuchel should had been happy about Darren Stinnett’s death, but instead she had condemned Kenny for having taken matters into his own hands.

Kenny hadn’t stopped there, however. Next, he had stalked all the members of Darren Stinnett’s squad and had murdered them, one by one. Of course, he had been more precise when he had killed them, but by the time he had gotten to his last victim, the assistant squad leader, he had become careless and had accidentally left a witness—the man’s female companion, who had run when she had seen Kenny’s approach. Kenny had followed after her, but she had begged for her life in exchange for her silence.

He shouldn’t have been surprised when two MPs had knocked on his door the next day, handcuffs at the ready. Needless to say, he hadn’t gone quietly. In fact, he hadn’t gone at all. They were the first two MPs that he had buried on the farm. The next day, the newspaper’s headline had only read, “Kenny the Ripper at large,” but no one currently in the Military Police had wanted to pursue his arrest. After all, he had only murdered MPs so far, so why would they have offered themselves up to his knife?

Kenny had expected to face consequences for his choices, but he had never thought that his own sister would have fled from home. Kenny knew now that Kuchel had taken refuge in the Underground district, but at that point in time, he had only a teary note, blaming him for “blowing the situation out of proportion.” “After all,” she had written, “I deserved what happened to me.” Since that moment, Kenny had had more than enough time to think of what he had done and what he could have done instead. Kuchel had blamed herself for what had happened to her, but he had blamed himself for taking revenge too far.

Still, Kenny had found another chance to redeem himself of his past sins against Kuchel when two weeks into his renewed contract, Rod Reiss had asked him if he would like an additional job on top of his others contracts. He had been unsure of his ability to fulfill the job’s requirements at first—even Uri, his biggest supporter, had been hesitant to allow him to take on the responsibility. Now, however, he couldn’t imagine life without baby Frieda.

He hadn’t expected to become so attached to a little girl. Once or twice a week of babysitting turned into daily visits, even if he had only time to kiss her head. Frieda as well had become attached to him, crying every time he had to leave or when her father took her away. Seemingly the contract between him and Rod in regard to Frieda only served as a way for Rod to restrict access to his daughter in case he had pissed him off one way or another.

About a month into the contract, when the spring had returned, Kenny had begun to notice that Rod watched him whenever he babysat Frieda. At first, Rod had found legitimate reasons to visit the nursery, but when Kenny took Frieda outside after the weather had warmed up, the elder Reiss brother would sit on his porch and watch. Kenny had assumed it was his suspicious nature. Then the week after that, while Kenny and Frieda were outside, Rod approached him as he reclined on his hammock with the baby asleep on his chest.

“You know,” Rod said, glancing down at him, “Frieda really likes you.”

“Yep.” Kenny continued stroking the tuft of brown hair on Frieda’s head. “You know, you could let me babysit Ulklin as well. Isn’t he three months old now?”

“Your connection to the rest of my children is not important.” Rod’s dark eyes gazed down at his daughter. “I just hope you and she continue to get along. After all, once Uri is gone, she will be your owner.”

Kenny blinked. “What are you talking about? It’s not likely that I’ll outlive Uri. After all, he has that super healing factor. Hell, he’ll probably even outlive Frieda.”

“Oh, did Uri not tell you?” Rod shrugged and turned away. “I really shouldn’t be the one to tell you…”

“Tell me what?” Kenny snapped, although he remained prone in order to not disturb the sleeping baby. “You can’t just bring shit up and not tell me. What do I not know?”

“Oh, it’s not really important. I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.” Rod walked away and waved idly. “I’m sure Uri plans on telling you eventually.”

When Kenny asked him later about what Rod had said, Uri all but evaded the question.

“You know that Rod is just trying to mess with you,” he said, never looking up from his dinner. “Your connection with Frieda makes him nervous. He’s intimidated by you.”

Kenny leaned into the table and rested his elbows on either side of his plate. The words escaped his lips before he realized what he had said.

“I wish I could give you children.”

Uri perked upright, his attention piqued. “You want to have my children?”

“Tch, no,” Kenny muttered. His cheeks turned several shades before they bloomed crimson. “I mean, it’s not fair that your brother already has two children. He doesn’t even spend any time with Frieda.”

“Spending time with children is a woman’s job.” Uri grimaced when he realized what he had said. “I mean, it’s not like I’m calling you a woman. I’m just saying it’s _usually_ a woman’s job.”

“Right. A woman’s job.”

That night, Kenny wondered why Kuchel hadn’t mailed him a letter in six months. Then again, he had accustomed himself to the idea that perhaps she had tired of him after the dissolution of their last living relation between them. If he had looked in the bottom drawer of Uri’s desk, he would have found her recent letters, opened and read. Uri hadn’t told him that his sister’s illness had interfered with her work. Uri hadn’t thought it important—after all, she hadn’t seemed worried about her sickness.

Everything came full circle a week later when Kenny, with baby Frieda in tow, went to the nearest wall town, Ovud District, the same place where Darren Stinnett had committed his crime against Kuchel only ten years prior. Busy with paperwork, Uri had sent him to the farmer’s market with a grocery list for the entire Reiss household. Maybe at the beginning of his contract, Kenny would have fussed about being sent out on mundane errands, but now that he had adjusted to a relatively peaceful life (if being sent occasionally to assassinate nearly helpless targets could have been considered peaceful), he didn’t mind so much. Once in town, he left his wagon and horse in an alleyway and walked the short distance to the market with Frieda, sleeping, strapped to his chest.

Of course, Kenny immediately thought of his past history with Ovud District, but he pushed it out of his mind. After all, his contract with Uri had made all his past problems null and void. Still, it was impossible to completely ignore. Many of the farmers had known his grandfather and, when they recognized the last of the Ackermans, they hesitantly asked Kenny about him. Each time, he explained that his grandfather had passed on and that he had sold the farm and had no intentions to continue in that line of work. Most asked him if Frieda was his daughter or whom he had married, but he carefully explained that she was his employer’s brother’s daughter. When asked who his employer was, he answered. For people who didn’t know who he was, that was the end of the conversation, but for people who did know who he was, it ended the conversation for completely different reasons.

Kenny had ignored the MPs that had followed his every move all day, and he had hoped that might have been enough to deter them from approaching him. However, late in the afternoon, when he returned to the wagon with the last item on his list, an assortment of bags of sugar, the group of four closed in on him in the nearly abandoned alleyway. He hoped they might have just gone their own way, but they came between him and his wagon. Something seemed vaguely familiar about them. Clutching the handles of his bags, Kenny scowled at the younger men.

“Do you mind?” he snapped. “I’m just going about my day. Fuck off.”

“You’re the Ripper, aren’t you?” the ringleader, a young man with dark hair and dark eyes, asked. He stepped toward Kenny, only coming up to his shoulder. “You know, the Ripper was once feared by all MPs, but I don’t see why.”

The young man’s three cronies _oohed_ and cackled at the ringleader’s words. Kenny rolled his eyes and stepped toward the wagon, but the young man continued to block his way.

“Hey, I’m talking to you.” He shoved hard on Kenny’s shoulders, but Kenny didn’t budge. “I thought you were supposed to be a scary man or something.”

Kenny cleared his throat and breathed in deeply. “It would be to your advantage if you not touch me again, Mr. …?”

“Squad Leader Martin Ober,” the young man said proudly. “Don’t you remember me? I saw you before you were the Ripper, before you killed Darren and his squad. You were trying to hide your whore of a sister as you came out of the courthouse.”

Something in Kenny’s brain snapped, but he couldn’t act on it. Instead, he tightened his grip on his grocery bags. “Yes, I remember you,” he muttered. “You would be well advised to walk away right now, kid.”

“I’ve been watching you all day,” Martin said, stepping closer to Kenny. His focus sharpened on Frieda, still sleeping in her sling on Kenny’s chest. “That’s the king’s brother’s daughter, isn’t it? The future queen, right?”

Kenny brought his arm up and shielded Frieda from the MP’s gaze. “Yes, so it would best serve you to leave right now,” he growled. “If you threaten me, then you’re threatening the princess. I will do whatever is necessary to protect her.”

“To think that Kenny the Ripper is a whore just like his sister,” Martin laughed, his face scrunching up hideously. “How did it come to this? You killed Darren and his friends and just kept on killing, until finally you somehow get the protection of the real king.”

“You seem to know quite a bit for some dumb kid,” Kenny grumbled. He glanced toward the three others, but they did not close in on him any farther, unlike their squad leader. “Yes, I have the protection of the king. That’s all you should be concerned with. You can’t threaten me, or I would be well within my rights to teach you a lesson in picking a fight with someone stronger than you.”

“It’s not right, you know.” The squad leader again shoved Kenny’s shoulders, but again he couldn’t make him budge. “You shouldn’t be able to just kill my friends and then get a fucking pardon from the king himself. I wanted so badly to make you pay for everything you’ve done—I’d been training for the day I would take you down, because I wouldn’t dare show mercy on you.”

Kenny breathed in deeply and pushed past Martin and to his wagon. Calmly, he set his bags of sugar in the wagon, and then he unstrapped Frieda from his chest and placed her down in the wagon as well. In spite of his shaking, his voice was very calm.

“Squad Leader,” he muttered, “I suggest you let go of your vendetta. This is not a fight you could win, even with your cronies. Besides, as you well know, I am under protection of the king. You cannot legally touch me.”

“There’s four of us and only one of you,” Martin retorted, “just like there was Darren and his squad and only one of your sister.”

Kenny spun on his heels, his eyes afire. “If you want to say something, then you may as well just spit it out!”

Martin smirked uneasily. “Well, it turned out okay for Darren and them up until you murdered them in cold blood,” he said quietly. “If you attack me, then that’s your fault. I could just be protecting myself from the Ripper. No one would blame me.”

“Is that what you think?” Kenny knew he shouldn’t have played into what this dumbass wanted, but he couldn’t help himself. After all, Uri wouldn’t allow anything to happen to him. He stepped toward the young man and towered over him. Still, Martin didn’t seem afraid, which pissed him off to no end. “If you think you know everything, then maybe you should tell me exactly what you know.”

“You’re the king’s whore, right?” In spite of his grin, his bottom lip trembled, like he anticipated a punch to the face any moment now. “The true king and his brother… everyone knows they stick their dicks in whoever catches their eyes. I mean… I don’t blame you if you got tired of always looking over your shoulder. Surely, you heard all the rumors about the king and decided to take advantage of him…”

“Tch, fuck off.” Kenny turned away. “You can’t do anything to me. I’ve been pardoned of the past, so I suggest you leave me the fuck alone.”

“Ohhh, Kenny the Ripper enjoys being a whore,” the squad leader crooned at his squad mates. “I bet he lets that short pervert they call a king fuck him every night. It’s just like Lord Uri Reiss to feel pity for a dog, because he’s not so human himself.”

Kenny froze, his pulse thundering in his ears. “If you want to live, I wouldn’t insult Lord Reiss again. I won’t warn you a second time.”

“Don’t pretend you care about him,” Martin huffed. “It’s not like he doesn’t show up at other royals’ parties and stick his dick in anything that catches his eye. Meanwhile, he makes you think that you’re something special, but you’re nothing but his lousy whore, and he’s nothing but a fucking monster.”

Kenny wasn’t quite certain how it came to pass, but now three men stared at him in absolute terror as he bloodied his knuckles on Squad Leader Martin Ober’s face. When he came to his senses, he couldn’t recall how much time had passed between his turning away from a potential fight and ending it. All he knew now was that a young MP was on the ground in front of him, unresponsive and still. As he stared down at what once was the cocky young man and backed away, the other MPs flocked to Martin and shook him, begging him to talk to them. Without another word, Kenny climbed up onto the perch where he had left Frieda, still asleep, and drove the carriage away. He didn’t need to stick around to know what he had done, even as the realization slowly donned on the other MPs.

 

 

Kenny hadn’t said much to him since he had returned from running errands in the wall city, but Uri hadn’t thought too much about it. After all, Kenny only spoke when the mood struck him. Perhaps Uri wouldn’t have thought anything of it at all if, after dinner, Kenny hadn’t grasped his elbow and pulled him close. “I did something bad,” he whispered. “You should punish me.” He didn’t say it with any inkling of arousal or with that breathy voice he used when he wanted nothing more than his touch—just those wide gray eyes, muted and unreadable as ever. For the first time in a long time, Uri hesitated.

“What did you do that needs to be punished?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t want to discuss it.” Kenny bowed his head, his hair falling over his face. “Can you just beat the hell out of me and call it a day?”

“Is it something I should know about?” Uri pulled his elbow from Kenny’s grasp and straightened his shoulders. “You shouldn’t hide anything from me.”

“I’m not hiding anything.” Brushing his fingers through his hair nervously, Kenny huffed. “Do I not have the fucking freedom to feel terrible about whatever arbitrary shit I might feel like, or do I have to justify every fucking thing I do or feel to you?”

Uri’s heart leapt in his chest. “It’s not like I want to pressure you into talking to me,” he muttered, “but who else is going to listen to you?”

“Look; I don’t want to talk about it, okay? Is that good enough for you, your fucking highness?” Kenny grumbled incoherently under his breath, but Uri read “fuck you” on his lips a number of times. “Okay, yeah. Remind me I have no fucking friends. You remind me that I have no other outlet than you, but then you refuse to indulge me. For fucking once, can you just do what I ask you to do for my sake?”

“I didn't say I wouldn't punish you. I just want to know why, or do you still refuse to confide in me?”

“I'm not going to talk to you,” he snapped, rising to his feet. “If you want me to talk to you, you'll make me talk. Even then, you'll struggle to get a single word out of me.”

A smirk stretched across Uri’s tired face. “Unless your life is in danger, and then you'll say as much as I like.”

“Tch,” Kenny grumbled as he crossed toward the door. “I said that you’d have to make me talk. I’ll prepare the scene myself if I have to.”

“Well, if I have no reason and no motivation to punish you, setting up a scene is pointless,” Uri muttered, crossing his arms across his chest, as he watched Kenny leave the room. “It’s not like I have to indulge every single request you have.”

Uri managed to keep his curiosity from getting the best of him for only twenty minutes. After so long of standing at the top of the stairs, leading into the basement, and staring into the dimness of the passageway, he couldn’t help but venture down. In the soft light of the basement awaited Kenny, stripped from the waist up and kneeling on the floor away from Uri. Perhaps it was inappropriate, considering Kenny’s morose disposition, but something stirred in his belly at the sight. Without so much resignation, he approached Kenny from behind and squatted down, his hands skimming his shoulders and down his arms and all the way to his hands. He smirked at the shoddy way Kenny had tried to bind his wrists on his own.

“This won’t do at all,” he muttered. “If I tried to suspend you like this, you would break free quite easily.”

“It’s not like I can do this myself,” Kenny snapped, the muscles of his back tensing against Uri. “If I could, I wouldn’t ask you to do this…”

“Heh.” With nimble fingers, Uri adjusted the suspension cuffs and tightened them more securely around Kenny’s wrists. He tugged firmly on the chain, connecting the cuffs to the rig above their heads. “Okay, I’ll punish you like you wanted me to, if you so desperately need it. Since this is for you, I’ll let you tell me when you’re done—but please keep my needs in mind.”

“Fine,” Kenny huffed, his gray eyes trained on the floor. “Just start already.”

Uri nipped at the crook of his neck, prompting a sudden, sharp gasp from Kenny, a revitalized light flooding his eyes. “You don’t have permission to talk to me so shortly,” he muttered, his teeth grazing the sensitive spot, forcing Kenny to squirm and sigh. “You’ll do well to recall that you have a rightful place beneath me, so you best remember to act the part.”

Kenny shuddered and crumpled. “I seem to have forgotten that,” he muttered. “Please remind me how fucking low I am.”

Uri frowned inwardly as he rose to his feet and crossed over to a lever beside the rig. With each crank of the lever, the chain tightened overhead until Kenny was lifted off the floor only to Uri’s height. After locking the lever in place, Uri stepped behind Kenny once more, pressing his forehead against the back of Kenny’s head and running his hands down Kenny’s sides.

“Did you already choose something you like and something you fear?” he whispered quietly.

“I did,” Kenny answered, his voice only barely audible. “On the table.”

Uri glanced sideways at the table nearby, where two implements awaited him. He grimaced. “Are you certain? I’ll give you this one chance to change your mind since you set up the scene. You really dislike—“

“I’m ready.” Kenny chuckled bitterly. “You like being a sadistic bastard, don’t you? Get turned on at the expense of my frustration. I don’t mind.”

“Oh, is that what you expect?” Uri couldn’t help but smirk. His hands wandered to the waistband of Kenny’s pants, his fingers already undoing the buttons. “I won’t hesitate to indulge you as long as you keep my needs in mind. I may as well get all of this out of the way…”

His thumbs hooked the fabric of his pants and underwear and tugged them down and off his body with one swift, rehearsed movement. Then, before he turned away, he cuffed Kenny’s ankles to the frame of the suspension rig, fully suspending him off the floor while keeping him at a convenient height. He stepped toward the table and without hesitation plucked up a pair of heavy floggers. Of course, Kenny had chosen this as the thing he liked. For Uri’s birthday, Kenny had given him the floggers—thick with soft leather strands, colored crimson. Uri slipped the wrist straps onto his arms and paced behind Kenny. He smirked at the tension in his beau’s bare shoulders.

“You said you were a bad boy, but I don’t know what you’ve done,” he whispered. “Don’t you figure you owe me an explanation?”

“I won’t tell you,” Kenny muttered. “It’s not like it’s something you need to know anyway.”

“Heh, you’ve got a smart mouth today. It’s time for me to fix that.”

“You can fucking try, at least.”

Uri grimaced inwardly. It was unlike Kenny to set up a scene and then to fight against going into subspace. Gripping the handles lightly, he brushed the leather straps of the floggers against Kenny’s back. Kenny sucked in a sharp breath and bit his lip, fighting to keep his focus on the blank wall in front of him. Again, Uri’s lip trembled. Maybe this was the only way they could connect at all.

“If it’s a release of tension you need, then I’ll give it to you,” he muttered. “After all, I am a kind man.”

Flicking his wrists, Uri drew back and spun the floggers in his hands, the leather strips connecting with Kenny’s flesh. A dull thud echoed in the basement with each individual strike. After just moments, little red marks spread across Kenny’s shoulders, scapulae, sides, and down to his hips, quivering slightly. In spite of the marks, Uri knew Kenny wasn’t in pain—flogging wasn’t at all like whipping. It was more of a dull sting, followed by the heavy caress of soft leather. For a few minutes, he held steady in his movements, each impact rewarded with a sigh or inhaled muttering of his name. Still, the question hung heavy in Uri’s mind. If only he could just read Kenny’s mind…

“You’ll tell me now what you did to deserve this,” Uri said, still spinning the floggers in his hands. “You want to tell me now.”

Uri’s words seemed to break Kenny’s focus, and his back tensed up once more. “I can’t tell you,” he murmured. “I won’t tell you.”

“Oh? Then I’ll have to go further.”

Uri released the floggers, now hanging from his wrists, and raked his fingernails down Kenny’s back. Kenny gasped loudly, ten long welts appearing from his shoulders and down to his ass. Chuckling quietly, Uri wound the fingers of his left hand in Kenny’s raven hair and tugged as his right hand reached around to cup the other man’s well-defined pectoral. His teeth sank into the flesh of Kenny’s shoulder.

“You won’t tell me anything if I do something you can withstand,” Uri muttered into Kenny’s hot skin. His eyes flickered downward between Kenny’s legs, his cock already half swollen like his own. “A bad boy doesn’t deserve to get exactly what he wants.”

Quickly backing away, Uri set down the floggers on the table and picked up the other implement, a feather duster. He thought it strange that Kenny would pick this over his cane as the thing he feared. Then again, Kenny could withstand pain quite easily, but something about a gentle touch could drive him mad. A sadistic smirk tugged at Uri’s lips in spite of it all. He wandered away to the other side of the basement, leaving Kenny to simmer in anticipation, his entire body shaking from tension.

“You’re certain about this?” he asked one last time. He spun on his heels to face Kenny’s back once more and stepped behind him. “I won’t stop until you tell me exactly what is on your mind.”

“I need to be punished,” Kenny said, his voice barely above a whisper. “It’s all my fault…”

“Oh? What did you do?” Uri reached around and gently brushed his fingers up and down the length of Kenny’s cock. His fingertips rubbed against the tip, collecting the precum. “Will you tell me, or do I need to tease it out of you just like I’ll tease your delicious cum out of you, too?”

Kenny sucked in a sharp breath and shook his head. With a sigh of feigned resignation, Uri clutched the feather duster in his other hand and brushed it along the insides of his thighs. Instinctively, Kenny struggled to clamp shut his thighs in spite of his ankles, having been secured to the rig’s frame. Desperation flooded his eyes.

“No,” he cried. “St-stop… Anything but that!”

“This is what you wanted.” Uri’s free hand glided up Kenny’s outstretched side and to his pectoral once more, his fingertip relentlessly teasing his nipple. “You’re completely helpless. I won’t stop until you tell me what I want to know.” He kissed Kenny’s ear. “Besides, if you really wanted me to stop, you have a special word for that.”

“You bastard…!” Kenny huffed and squirmed beneath the touch of his fingertip and the feather duster. His face twisted between anguish and pleasure. “I couldn’t tell you…!”

Uri nuzzled his neck and purred quietly. “Let it all out,” he said. “That’s what you need right now, correct? Let me have the full brunt of your words. I can handle it.”

With each passing moment, Kenny’s chest heaved more and more, his breaths hanging heavy in the cold air. His eyes screwed shut, his entire body quivering. His focus entirely on his trussed beau, Uri idly swept the feather duster up and down the insides of his thighs, still trying to squirm away from his touch. Leaning close, his front flush against Kenny’s back, he nipped gently the other man’s collarbone.

“You’re not saying anything…” His gaze darted across Kenny’s shaking body. “Tell me everything on your mind.”

“Fuck you!” Kenny roared, his resolve to struggle reinvigorated. “Why do I have to tell you? Read my fucking mind, you monster!”

Kenny’s words might have hurt him normally. Here in this space, however, Uri didn’t budge. After all, Kenny needed this moment to let go of what hurt him.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot do that,” he sighed. “Ackermans are blessed with unreadable, immutable minds. You’ll have to use your big boy words.”

“Fuck you!” Kenny’s already loud voice thundered against the walls of the basement. “That fucking name destroyed what life I could have had… made it impossible for her to run anywhere but into danger… hangs like a crown of thorns on my fucking head, cutting me with each small movement, every single breath…!”

With each word, Uri could glance an incomplete picture of Kenny’s mind. Still, he didn’t stop in his torment. Something about the way Kenny’s cheeks swelled with color delighted him. If he were in fact a kind man, the tightening of his pants would have been shameful. Then again, only a kind man could have kept this sadistic façade up for the man he loved.

“Tell me,” Uri begged. “I want to know. Cut me. Abuse me with those words. I can handle it just like you can handle the physical torment. Abuse me like I abuse you, if only to dissipate the pain of being monsters.”

“So it’s true—I am a monster in need of discipline and emotional release, just like you.” Kenny’s words were interrupted by a half-groan, half-cry of pleasure. His body stopped shaking, as if his muscles had realized the futility of struggling any further. The realization was always just a step slower in Kenny’s mind, however. Still, Uri hadn’t expected the welling of tears in those gray eyes. “It’s all my fault… Everything…”

Uri paused when the tears spilled down his cheeks, but immediately Kenny snapped back to life and struggled against his binds.

“I didn’t say my fucking safe word, you bastard!” he snarled. A wild look filled those sad, empty eyes. “Until I fucking say it, don’t stop!”

Uri thought to snap back at him, but this was Kenny’s safe space. With a deep breath, he braced himself for whatever was to come and continued the torment with the feather duster. He dragged the fingernails of his free hand down his tense back.

“Tell me what is your fault,” he muttered. “I want to know.”

“ _Everything_!” Kenny’s voice raised itself to a scream as sobs shook him. “I’m sorry I ever did anything… I’m sorry I ever felt angry enough to kill a man. I fucked up. I ruined Kuchel’s life. I ruined Gramps’ life. It’s all my fucking fault… Why the fuck did I think it would be worth it?” He bowed his head, his cries of anguish filling the room. “Every time I try to fix anything with killing, I just fuck everything up!”

“Why do you say that?” Uri asked, his gut twisting painfully in every direction.

“I wanted Kuchel to be happy again,” he gasped, “so I killed all the men that made her feel misery. After she ran away, I left home to find her and bring her back. She wouldn’t come back with me. She didn’t want anything to do with me.” He sniffled, tears still pouring down his cheeks. “Killing fixed nothing then. When I returned home, Gramps told me that it was just the Ackerman curse, to be hunted to extinction. He told me the true king was at fault, and I thought if only I could kill the true king, then maybe it would fix everything. I dedicated my life to killing you because I thought you were the cause of it all… and now I kill men for you.” His lip trembled. “I’m sorry, Lord Reiss. I shouldn’t have done it. I didn’t have permission to do it. Please… please forgive me.”

“Did you kill someone, Kenny?”

Kenny didn’t answer the question. All he said was, “His blood was _red_ ,” and immediately Uri stopped. Without delay, he pulled the lever, let him down onto the cold stone floor, and released him from the cuffs. Uri draped a red-plaid flannel blanket—one of Kenny’s favorites—over his beau and rubbed his shoulders through the thick fabric as Kenny wept. Kneeled down beside the Ackerman, he kissed Kenny’s shoulder.

“I’m very happy that you can talk to me,” Uri whispered.

A thousand questions fluttered through his mind—had he killed someone in Ovud District? Why? Had they threatened his baby niece, who had accompanied Kenny on his errands? Had he tried to find any other way of handling the situation? Who had it been? Would it cause an issue? Would Uri have to cover it up, or had he already taken care of it? Still, he shook the unanswered questions from his mind. If he sprung those questions on Kenny now, he would undoubtedly shut down. Instead, he tried to appreciate Kenny’s attempt at transparency. After all, maybe in a few years, he wouldn’t need to be forced to speak.

“Would you like to go to the bedroom now?”

Kenny nodded meekly. “That would be okay.”

“Would you like some tea or something else to drink?”

Uri moved to stand, but Kenny’s hand found the lapel of his jacket and pulled him close, their lips meeting at last. Then, just as quickly as he had kissed him, Kenny broke it off. A rosy flush overtook his face.

“I’m not ready for the aftercare,” he muttered. “You want to fuck me, don’t you?”

“Of course, I want to fuck you, but this is for you tonight. I’ll do what you want.”

“You’ll do as I ask?”

“Yes.” An uneasy grin spread across Uri’s lips. He wasn’t quite sure why his stomach twisted so painfully. “I might not understand you at all, but I love you. I’ll be there for you however you want me to be.”

Kenny smirked. “After all this fucking time, you still pretend to be kind and noble? That’s not what I need at this moment. Remind me that I’m strong, and don’t hold back.”

“You’ve always been strong,” Uri found himself saying. “You’re strong—stronger than I ever could be.”

“Stop talking like an idiot.”

Without warning, Kenny scooped Uri up in his arms, holding him flush against his chest, damp with sweat. In silence, he carried the Titan King out of the basement and to the bedroom. Still, Uri admired this beautiful creature—strong in every way physically, from his ability to take a beating and then to still have the strength to carry him like a sack of potatoes, yet adamant in his belief that Uri was somehow stronger. He knew only that Kenny’s pain spawned from his sister. It was the only way he could justify her letters, unread by the intended’s eyes, languishing in the bottom drawer of his desk. All he ever wanted was to free Kenny from this pain and to eliminate all other distractions. Then there would be no reason for Kenny to ever leave him. Kenny dropped Uri on the bed and crawled between his legs.

“Don’t treat me like a porcelain doll,” Kenny whispered, grasping Uri by the head, breathing into his shaggy platinum hair. “If I could break, you would have thrown me away long ago.”

“Even if you did break,” Uri gasped, his lips brushing against Kenny’s jawline, “I wouldn’t throw you away. I would do anything to put you back together, just as you do for me. After all, your attempt to fix yourself just led you straight to me.”

“Don’t you dare get soft on me, Lord Reiss.” Those gray eyes, so unreadable most of the time, smoldered with desire, encompassing his entire being. “Worshipping you was inevitable. It’s my purpose—the only thing I live for.”

Kenny shoved Uri hard into the pillows, stacked against the headboard. Without wasting any time, he unbuttoned from the collar of Uri’s starched shirt to the fly of his trousers. Before Uri could even process it, Kenny’s hands were on his faintly defined abdominals and his lips on his swollen cock. He sucked in a sharp inhale as Kenny took all of him into his mouth, his tongue like hot velvet. If he weren’t burning with desire before, now the fire consumed him.

“That’s very good,” he sighed. His hands swept the hair from his face. “Bring your ass around to me so I can have something to do, too.”

All too eager to oblige, Kenny twisted his hips so that he was within reach of the other man. Uri tore his eyes momentarily from his beau, still with his mouth full, to the nightstand and snatched up the jar of lubricant there. Even after all this time, Kenny tensed up, his thighs quivering with anticipation, at the sound of the jar’s opening. Uri chuckled as he coated his forefinger and middle finger, his blue gaze settling upon the ass presented to him.

“Keep up what you’re doing now,” he said. “If you keep doing so well, I’ll be forced to fuck you until I pass out from exhaustion.”

At his words and the cold touch to his ass, Kenny dug his fingernails into the soft flesh of Uri’s sides. First the forefinger and then the middle finger slipped inside, Kenny’s hips and cock stiffening in tandem. When Kenny’s focus seemed to shift from Uri to himself, Uri swatted his ass gently with his free hand.

“I’ll take good care of you, so take proper care of me,” he whispered. “I like it when you take all of me in like that, but I want to see more.”

From his position, Kenny locked eyes with Uri and pulled back slowly, a devilish grin tugging at his lips. His gaze remained steady as his tongue dragged up the underside of Uri’s cock and swirled around the head, collecting the precum that dripped from the tip. When Uri curled his fingers and gently caressed the tender spot inside of him, however, his focus threatened to shatter. His shaking hands moved to grip the base of Uri’s cock and to cup his balls.

“That’s a good boy,” Uri cooed. “If you want me to fuck you so badly, make me want it just as bad.”

Really, Uri didn’t need to be convinced to want his beau. His desire for Kenny burned hotter than the fires of the hell to which humanity had been damned. Instead, even after all this time, he needed to be reminded that Kenny—beautiful, precious, perfect—could desire him. Uri may have had everything material that he could ever want, but he was only truly happy when those gray eyes glazed over with a desperate need.

“Please fuck me, Lord Reiss.” Kenny’s wet lips grazed Uri’s cock when he spoke, sending shivers down his spine. “Don’t force me to straddle you and take it myself.”

“If that’s what you want, then I won’t stop you.” Uri drew back his hand, prompting a wanton gasp from Kenny. “After all, I did say you could do as you pleased tonight as long as my needs are satisfied.”

By the time Uri had finished speaking, Kenny had straddled him, gripping the blonde’s shoulders, his knuckles white. He dropped his hips onto Uri, accommodating the whole length of the king. A whimper escaped his trembling lips, and his brow furrowed. Chuckling, Uri grasped the other man’s hips. His eyes surveyed all that belonged to him.

“Don’t be such a greedy slut if you don’t want it to be so rough,” he cooed. “Take it a bit slower—“

Uri saw the devilish glint in Kenny’s eye right before the grip tightened on his shoulders, and all of Kenny’s weight slammed down into his lap. He sucked in a sharp breath, his back arching against the headboard, as Kenny bounced up and down, taking all of his cock inside of him over and again. If he weren’t careful, he wouldn’t be able to hold on for long… He sucked in a deep breath and clutched Kenny’s hips, halting the rocking of his hips.

“Slow down,” he huffed. “You’re going too fast…”

“Tch, idiot,” Kenny chuckled between gulps of air, “maybe I want to make you cum quickly. Did you ever think of that?”

“Remind me that I need to put you in your place again tomorrow.” Uri grinned. “You’re lucky that I’m indulging you right now with that indignant attitude…”

Gripping Kenny’s hair, Uri tugged him in for a deep kiss. Without even breaking the kiss, Kenny rocked his hips once more, returning to his previous frenetic pace. When his beau pulled away suddenly from the kiss with a gasp, he knew he must have been hammering on that sensitive spot inside of him. Kenny’s face flushed scarlet, and he muttered Uri’s name under his breath. His name tumbled from those quivering lips, twisted into an O-shape, over and over. His name being said by that beautiful creature was a greater pleasure than fucking him, and that felt pretty goddamn great, too. Kenny dug his sharp fingernails into Uri’s shoulders, steam rising from the little cuts in his flesh.

“Lord Reiss,” he whispered, his eyes glazed over, “please cum inside of me.”

Kenny didn’t have to tell Uri twice. As soon as Kenny’s hips dropped on to him that last time, he couldn’t hold back any longer. Throwing his arms around Kenny and pressing their chests flush together, Uri whispered the praises of this most perfect being as ecstasy washed over him. When Kenny stiffened in his arms and shuddered, Uri felt the hot splash of his cum on his belly, reinvigorating the shockwaves of pleasure that overtook his body. Gulping for air, they collapsed against the pillows, entwined in each other’s embrace. For a long time, they remained there, each basking in the glow of his partner. Then, in the middle of a deep kiss, Kenny broke it off suddenly and gazed back at Uri.

“If I defended myself by hurting or killing someone, you wouldn’t turn against me, right?” he stuttered. “I need to know.”

“Your sins are always forgiven,” Uri answered.

After the lights were out and they were curled up beneath the sheets together, Kenny sobbed silently. Uri wished he could have erased that pain from his mind like he could so easily erase anything from anyone else’s mind. Uri couldn’t sleep until finally Kenny had settled down, and even then he watched over his beau. Kenny, Uri assumed, feared that someone would take him away for whatever he had done, but Uri would kill the man that tried—and try, they did.

            The next morning, while he brewed a pot of tea as Kenny slept peacefully in bed, Uri heard a knock on the door of his villa. There stood Rod and a band of MPs, their fingers already on the hammers and triggers of their rifles. Uri shouldn’t have been surprised. Kenny had been a bad boy after all.

            “You’re not taking him,” he said as Rod opened his mouth. “I don’t care what he did—“

“He killed a young man,” Rod said, his expression devoid of all but the coldness in his dark eyes. “Yesterday, he beat a squad leader to death. I want him out of here.”

“You’re not taking him.” Uri moved to close the door. “I don’t care what he did. There’s nothing you can do, so please leave.”

Rod caught the door and pried it open, his stony face twisting into a perverse grin. “You know, I’m really tired of your arrogance, little brother. I’ve indulged you for a long time, but it’s time to break that cute delusion of yours.” He leaned in close, his heavy breath hot on Uri’s pallid face. “You have only the illusion of control. Everything you own—your money, your villa, your possessions, your precious Kenny—is actually all mine.”

“Th-that’s not true,” Uri stuttered in spite of the cracking of his voice. “This power—this curse—is mine and mine alone!”

“So that is all you actually own. The burden of the truth.” Rod laughed bitterly. “That’s good and all, but I’m the one who actually runs everything. Now step aside.”

“If you try to take him,” Uri hissed, “I’ll fucking kill you.” Furious tears streaked down his sunken cheeks. “Don’t push me, Rod. I’m not bluffing.”

“That maniac killed my squad leader right in front of us!” one of the MPs interrupted. “He beat him until he quit breathing, and then he just walked off like it was nothing! Doesn’t that mean anything to you, Lord Reiss?”

Uri bowed his head, his blonde hair obscuring his face. “No, I’m sorry. I’m certain that Kenny didn’t do it for no reason. After all, he is pure—the only one whose sins I have forgiven without question.”

The MP’s eyes went wide. “The squad leader was right. You… you are a monster!”

“Oh? So there is the truth.” Darkness flooded Uri’s eyes. “Your squad leader disparaged my name, and now you want to arrest the man who carries out my will?”

The other MPs, staring daggers, turned to the one as he slapped a hand over his mouth. Quickly, the bravado faded from Rod’s face and returned to Uri’s. Uri cackled quietly.

“Disparaging the name of the king is punishable by death, you know. There really is nothing you can do, big brother. Please remove yourself from my doorstep.”

Once the door was closed, Uri returned to the kitchen. The hissing of the teakettle drowned out his anguished, frustrated cries. After sobbing over his over brewed tea, he returned to the dark bedroom, where Kenny still slept. A well-placed kiss on the crook of the neck awoke him. Gray eyes, blurry with sleep, peered back at Uri.

“Is everything okay, Uri?” Kenny asked.

“Yes,” he answered.

Uri never told Kenny about the MPs on his doorstep that day. He thought it best to leave it unsaid. Perhaps he should have mentioned Rod’s treachery sooner, however.

 

 

INTERLUDE: Callipygian

_Bad boy. I’ll have to punish you._

For the first half hour, Kenny had grumbled Uri’s words sarcastically under his breath. However, when he heard the clanging of the grandfather clock from out in the hallway, something in his mind clicked. Slowly, the argument slipped from his mind. Soon, he forgot why Uri had commanded him to exile himself to the bedroom, to tug down his pants, and to bend over and stick his bare ass in the air, ready to accept punishment. Now, as the moments ticked by, his hips quivered and quaked and burned. Surely, Kenny thought to himself, Uri would depart from his office and fulfill his punishment soon.

After another half hour, the grandfather clock chimed again. Discomfort settled into his body, but as more time passed, anticipation overwhelmed his mind. When Uri came to him, would he strike him with his warm cupped palm, the cold leather paddle, or perhaps something else? As he considered each and imagined the feeling on his flesh, his spine shuddered, the small hairs on the back of his neck rising up. The blush of his cheeks spread to his chest, washed over his belly, and finally settled into his thighs. His hot breath warmed the mussed sheets near his mouth, each pant closer and closer to when finally Uri would come to give him what he deserved.

When finally he heard footsteps in the hallway, Kenny held his breath and stilled his shaking body. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Uri in the doorway, staring down at a book in his hand. Without even looking twice at Kenny, bent over in the center of the bed with his bare ass up high, Uri crossed the bedroom and to the bathroom and shut the door behind him. Just a moment later, Kenny heard the turning of a faucet and the splashing of water in the bathtub. His face twisted in anger.

“You fucking bastard…!”

Grumbling furiously under his breath, Kenny righted himself and stumbled to his feet. Tugging up his pants, his hips quaking with soreness, he stormed over to the bathroom and threw open the door. Reclined in the tub, Uri glanced up from the book in his hand. Annoyance crossed his dimpled face when his blue eyes fell upon Kenny. He clicked his tongue.

“What do you think you’re doing, Kenny?”

“I’ve been waiting for you for over an hour now,” he growled. “You thought you could just ignore that?”

“Yes.” Uri returned his gaze to the book. “I didn’t tell you to get up. Return to where you were. I’ll deal with you after I’ve cleaned up for the night. I’m returning you to your rightful place after your repeated outbursts—remember? Now go.”

Kenny opened his mouth to protest, but Uri shot him one final withering glance. With a groan of resignation, he returned to the bed and to his original position. Every few seconds, he looked to see if Uri watched him, but Uri kept his steady gaze on the book. Kenny shook with anger at first, pissed that he was ordered to take such a humiliating position and hadn’t even been noticed. Then, as the minutes ticked by, the anger slowly ebbed away. Anticipation and then desperation overtook him. His furious huffs morphed into needy whines, increasing in volume with each passing moment. How long was he expected to remain like this…?

“L-Lord Reiss,” he stuttered, dizzy from the blood rushing to his head, “will you be much longer?”

“Did I say you could speak?” Uri answered. His dark gaze swept across the room and settled on Kenny. A sneer tugged at his lips. “I don’t want to hear another sound from you—no more talking, no more moaning, nothing. If you speak again, then your punishment will just be that much more severe.”

Blushing furiously, Kenny fell silent and pressed his face into his hands. It wasn’t like he had been given an impossible task. All he had to do was hold his position and to be silent. As the minutes ticked by, eventually fading into another half-hour, the soreness intensified in his hips, but still he obeyed. After all, Uri tended to reward him for a job well done… The thought brought a renewed flush to his face. Surely, he wouldn’t be made to wait much longer.

Excitement fluttered in his chest when he heard the draining of water. Once Uri got out of the tub and dried himself off, certainly he would come this way, Kenny thought to himself. Still, even after he wrapped himself up in his robe, Uri ignored Kenny, seated himself on the chaise longue across the room, and continued reading from his book. When the grandfather clock chimed once more, Kenny couldn’t help but groan. Uri flickered his gaze from the words on the page and to his beau.

“Oh, dear. Time just seems to fly by. I didn’t realize that my little pet could obey one command for so long.” His lip curled into a playful sneer. “You’ve had some rude outbursts lately, and you’re in need of discipline. Perhaps you’re ready to be reminded of where you belong?”

The nonchalance in Uri’s voice very nearly made Kenny’s blood boil. His heart pounded in his chest when Uri rose to his feet. From his position, he could no longer see Uri’s face.

“Last night, you asked me to punish you on your terms,” Uri sighed, his footsteps echoing in Kenny’s ears. “Because of the circumstances, I allowed you to be rude. Still, perhaps I gave too much leeway, because you continued to misbehave today.”

“Give me one example of bad behavior,” Kenny snapped.

“Talking back to me like that is a perfect example.” Uri clicked his tongue. “What am I going to do with you…? Perhaps I have been too lax with disciplining you. I’ve become too lenient with behavioral slip-ups.” He stopped right behind Kenny and hummed. “You’re in the perfect position to have your ass beaten, but I don’t know… Surely you’ve mentally prepared yourself for that possibility already.” His fingertips dragged up the back of Kenny’s thigh, quivering under his touch. “I think perhaps you’ll withstand anything just to get off in the end. What if I didn’t let you have that?”

“You wouldn’t do that.” Kenny didn’t intend to say it out loud, but the words left his lips regardless. His cheeks burned. “It’s not like you’re cruel…”

“Oh? I’m not cruel?” With a quiet chuckle, Uri swatted Kenny’s ass, a dull thud echoing throughout the room. “Okay. I’ll leave it up to chance then.” He walked over to the nightstand, where an errant coin set. With it in his grasp, he turned once more to Kenny. “Heads or tails?”

Kenny clutched the bedspread and grimaced. “Tails.”

Uri flipped the coin up into the air and allowed it to land on the bedspread where Kenny could see. Upon the coin’s landing heads-up, Kenny’s heart dropped out of his chest.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Uri sighed. “I suppose there’s no helping it. You’ll be disciplined without a reward.”

“N-no,” Kenny choked as he moved to sit upright. His disobedience was met with a tug on his red bell collar to return him to his original position and another swat on the ass.

“If you behave better, you may change my mind, but disobeying me will not garner you a reward,” Uri, leaning down over him, purred in his ear. “Now hold perfectly still and be a good boy. Depending on how pleased I am with your behavior, I will decide at the end.”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss.”

As Uri stood upright and crossed the room to peruse his implements, Kenny tightened his grip on the bedspread. Uri was always easily convinced to give him what he wanted, so there was no reason to worry. All he ever had to do was look over his shoulder, bat those gray eyes so dearly loved by Uri, and breathe out, “Fuck me, Lord Reiss.” Never before had it failed him whenever Uri had tried to restrain himself, to discipline Kenny with denial. Luckily, his position obscured the grin that overtook his blushing face. The king of the walls, as they called him, was neatly wrapped around his finger—so what did that make him? His thoughts slipped away as easily as they had come when he heard the shutting of the trunk in the corner of the room, and Uri placed before his eyes his chosen tools. His proud heart wavered in his chest when one of the implements caught his eye.

“You don’t actually plan on using that, do you?” he warbled, nodding at the smooth wooden dildo, nearly as thick as his wrist. “It’s not like that’s necessary…”

“If you act up, I’ll be forced to use it.” Uri reached over and pressed down on the back of Kenny’s head, burying his nose in the bedspread. “Just keep that in mind when I tell you to quit whining, because I could test to see how much your insides can take.”

Kenny didn’t dare to test Uri’s threat. Uri was most successful at following through on his more sadistic ideas. He gulped.

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss.”

“Good boy. Now behave.”

Even with his face pressed to the mattress, Kenny could still see Uri’s hand, pawing through the assortment of implements he had placed before him. After a long pause, his slender fingers grasped his preferred tool, his leather riding crop. The cool leather brushed up his side as Uri stood upright and paced behind him. Excitement fluttered in his belly, and his chest rose with each breath. He didn’t have to look back to see the smirk that was undoubtedly upon Uri’s face.

“My spoiled little pet,” he cooed, “always getting what he wants. Tell me—“

“I’m your slut, Lord Reiss.”

Kenny wished he could have seen how Uri’s eyes lit up with delight.

“Good boy… I don’t even have to tell you what I want to hear. But if you know what I want, then why don’t you behave without discipline? Perhaps it’s your nature, just like a disinterested housecat, to misbehave until you want attention… heh. I hope that you won’t need more discipline for at least a week after I’m through with you. Unlikely, but one can hope you may learn.”

With a sigh, Uri flicked his wrist and brought the riding crop down on Kenny’s ass. A satisfying smack echoed off the walls although it was no more than a slight stinging sensation. A short pause after the first strike, Uri, moving only his wrist, snapped the leather against flesh, the blows short, rapid, focused upon the fleshiest part of his bottom, the stinging sensation crescendoing, traveling away from the impact like a pained tickle down Kenny’s sacrum. His exhausted hips quivered as the stinging accumulated there. After a minute or two, Uri pulled back the riding crop and raked his fingernails down the small of Kenny’s back, the red streaks matching the welting of his ass. Kenny sucked in a deep breath as the phantom of the impact echoed through his tense body, goose bumps and small hairs rising when the erotic chill swept over him.

“Thank you for the punishment, Lord Reiss,” left his gasping mouth. “Please, discipline me more.”

“More? You are quite the little slut, aren’t you?”

Uri clicked his tongue as he batted the riding crop between Kenny’s thighs, starting above the knees and rising steadily. Feeling the leather slap against his thighs, drawing nearer to the place he needed more attention, Kenny held his breath. His pulse thundered in his head, his heart, his belly, and the base of his spine. Where the thighs met the rest of his body, the leather glided between his legs, over his balls, dragged up the underside of his cock, and brushed along the tip, dripping already. Kenny furrowed his brows, his fingernails digging into his palms through the brocade bedspread. Still, he held perfectly still. He wouldn’t devolve into a moaning, flailing mess at one light touch like he once would.

“Oh, you’re holding still?” Uri dropped his hand and pulled away the riding crop. “Good boy… your stamina has vastly improved since your first punishment. I hope you can keep it up.”

The riding crop came down hard one last time on Kenny’s ass before Uri set it aside. Again, Kenny watched as he combed through the assortment of implements. When his hand paused over the thick wooden dildo, his fingers running up and down the length, panic flashed across Kenny’s gray eyes. Seeing Kenny’s twitch, Uri laughed, pulled his hand away from it, and grabbed a glass implement, slender and curved with a rounded bulbous end. Then he stepped out of Kenny’s view, leaving his beau to simmer in anticipation. Kenny didn’t recognize the tool, but when he heard the opening of the jar of lubricant out of sight, he had an idea of its use. He tried not to squirm when he felt Uri’s free hand upon his hip.

“If you must moan or cry out, you are allowed that much,” Uri said, “but do not move your hips at all. You’ll keep your ass up and thighs apart without forcing me to restrain you, and you’ll thank me for your punishment. Understood?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss…”

“I’m going to touch you now. Don’t move.”

As much as he could manage, Kenny braced himself for the cold touch. When the glass wand pressed against his entrance, however, he jumped. Uri tightened his grip on Kenny’s hip.

“I told you not to move.”

“S-sorry, it’s colder than I thought it would be,” Kenny stuttered. “I wasn’t prepared…”

“No excuses. Don’t move again. I won’t tolerate disobedience.”

Even after all this time, Kenny still felt a flash of anger whenever Uri reprimanded him. There was no time to dwell on it, however, because in that moment, the glass wand pressed against him once more. The gasp that escaped through his lips was louder than he had meant it to be—the icy glass contrasted the hotness of his insides. Awareness of the burning deep within him stretched into every corner of his consciousness. Every nerve ending screamed in agonizing delight, shooting up his spine and overwhelming his brain, awash with pleasure. His thighs quivered, but he held his hips still as his body swallowed the bulbous end. After just a few minutes more, certainly he could cast that gaze over his shoulder and force Uri to satisfy his needs…

“Good boy.” Uri released his grip on Kenny’s hip and moved his hand to the small of Kenny’s back. “Behave, and I’ll reward you as I see fit.”

Kenny sucked in a deep breath as the glass wand moved around inside of him, searching for his most tender spot. Part of him wanted nothing more than to be teased, but the other part was hesitant, uncertain if Uri would deny or allow the eventual release he would need. Just a moment later, the glass implement found its mark. Kenny didn’t have to cry out (although he did)—Uri could tell from the tensing of his shoulders, the curling of his toes, and the slight buckling of his hips that he had hit the spot. He restrained his movements, focusing the icy touch on the place that turned his beau’s vision white. Kenny pressed his open mouth tightly to the bedspread and let out an anguished cry, the moans nearly mute to Uri’s ears.

“Good boy,” Uri repeated. His free hand swatted the thick part of Kenny’s ass. “Don’t hold it in… Go ahead and let me hear your voice.”

Kenny knew what would happen to him if he let out his voice. If he so much as moaned out loud, his entire body would start to shake, and his resolve would crumble. His hips would buckle, and every muscle in his body would tense. His moans seemed to intensify every sensation until he couldn’t think or breathe, devolving himself into a slutty mess. So he kept his mouth against the thick fabric, muffling his cries. Uri huffed his amusement.

“Well, if you’re not enjoying yourself, there’s no sense in continuing,” he muttered as his hand paused. “I may as well just pull this out and go to bed—“

“N-no, Lord Reiss,” Kenny stuttered, throwing a glance over his shoulder. “Don’t stop…”

“Don’t stop?” Uri smirked back at him, his blonde hair strewn across his hot face, his blue gaze smoldering. “Then please indulge me with that lovely voice.”

When Uri moved the glass wand inside of him again, Kenny sucked in a ragged breath and pressed the top of his head against the mattress. His glassy stare fell between his legs and where Uri stood; seeing the faint outline of Uri’s erection through his robe brought a renewed flush to his cheeks. Upon his exhale a cry escaped his lips. As the minutes passed and Uri kept that icy focus on the tender spot within, the faint warbles quickly escalated into moans that filled the room, shaking him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. His fingers, knuckles white, couldn’t curl any more around the bedspread. When his hips began to buckle, Kenny gritted his teeth, breathing in sharply through his nose.

“F-fuck me please, Lord Reiss,” he muttered.

“Oh?” Uri raked the fingernails of his free hand down Kenny’s shuddering back. “I would love to… but I’m not convinced that you deserve that. After all, you’ve been a very bad boy.” He leaned over Kenny and kissed along the curve of his spine. “If my pet wishes to be so talkative, he should utilize his words in a way that best piques my curiosity in what he desires.”

Kenny grimaced as he fought the overwhelming pressure for control of his mind. “You… you want me to flatter you, Lord Reiss?”

“You could say that,” Uri said, muttering his words against the hot flesh of Kenny’s lower back. Marveling at his callipygian form, he brushed his free hand over his ass. “After all, I said you had to convince me to let you have a reward, and saying nice things will correct all the rude things you said earlier…”

Kenny only had a limited amount of time before the building pressure at the base of his spine distracted him from anything but needing immediate release. His shoulders trembled as he took a deep breath.

“Lord Reiss is a kind man,” he muttered. “So… please fuck me, Lord Reiss.”

“Oh, what a sad effort.”

Suddenly, Kenny felt Uri’s grip on his tussled hair. He cried out when Uri tugged hard and pulled his head back. His unfocused vision blurred the ceiling above him.

“I trained you better than that.” Uri’s breath was hot on his back. “Try again, or I’ll tease you until you pass out. You haven’t got much longer until the pleasure completely overtakes you, so you best hurry up.”

“Please fuck me, Lord Reiss,” Kenny whimpered, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. His mouth hung agape. “I need to be fucked… and only Lord Reiss is capable of giving me what I need. I need to be fucked by Lord Reiss’s cock…” His shaking foot nudged blindly backward against Uri’s thigh. “Lord Reiss’s little pet wants to be spoiled… so ready to be filled with hot, sticky cum… Please, fuck me…”

“Heh. You are at your limit after all.” Uri stood upright once more. “I suppose it can’t be helped. You are right… My little pet does want to be spoiled, and I’m always very eager to spoil you.”

Tremors shook Kenny’s body when Uri slowly tugged the glass implement out and set it aside on the table beside the chaise longue. Even as Kenny’s hips buckled desperately, Uri took his time in moving the other tools off of the bed and replacing the clean ones within the trunk. His patience, however, was a clever façade, for as soon as the lid of the trunk closed, he returned to Kenny, his hands gripped on his hips.

“Lower your ass to my level,” he commanded. “I can’t fuck you on the tips of my toes.”

Kenny lowered himself almost by instinct to the height most comfortable for his beau, even if the discomfort of the position greatly impacted his stamina. Already, as Uri untied the belt of his robe and pushed the silky fabric aside from his erection, Kenny’s hips burned in more ways than one. He looked over his shoulder, intently watching as Uri slathered his cock with lubricant. After Uri had prepared himself, he met that silver gaze with a smirk.

“You’re so lucky I love to spoil you,” he whispered.

Even if Kenny had thought to reply, his words would have been lost within his wanton gasp upon Uri’s cock pushing inside of him. The stimulation of the glass implement had left that tender spot inside of him demanding to be touched more, and it came to life again upon his insides being filled more satisfactorily. Kenny’s grinding of his hips, flush against the other man’s, prompted a gasp from Uri as his hands curled around Kenny’s waist.

“Goddamn, your insides are like fire…”

Uri balled his fist up in the damp fabric of Kenny’s shirt and tugged the other man upright, pressing his chest flush against Kenny’s back. The blood rushed out of Kenny’s face, and his head limply fell back onto Uri’s shoulder. The quivering in his hips, not quite relieved of their uncomfortable position, started anew. Uri’s hands, trembling slightly, felt blindly under Kenny’s shirt, his fingertips tracing along the hills and valleys of his abdominals.

“Fuck, you’re lucky that I wanted to spoil you,” he muttered, still attempting to exert some semblance of control over the situation. He knew as well as Kenny that he couldn’t have stopped himself. “Next time… next time I won’t be so kind.”

“Yes, Lord Reiss,” Kenny said, a faint smirk upon his pleasure-twisted lips.

When finally Uri tightened his grip on his waist and pulled out slowly, Kenny crumbled against the smaller man’s chest. For a long moment, Uri held him there, all but the tip of his cock pulled out, until again there was a faint clanging of the grandfather clock once more from the hallway. As soon as the chime reached their ears, Uri slammed his hips to meet Kenny’s. Without further pause, Uri bucked his hips and rocked Kenny’s back and forth, his pace only quickening as the seconds passed. The hammering upon his prostate reduced Kenny to nothing more than a quivering mess, his arms extended behind his head and his hands clutching to Uri’s slender shoulders for dear life. Only sparks filled his glassy, swimming eyes.

“So good,” he whispered. “So good… more…”

“More?” Uri panted, his lips upon the crook of Kenny’s neck. “You’re hardly clinging on now…”

Once Uri wrapped his hot grip around his dripping cock, Kenny was gone. All that was left was the building pressure at the base of his spine, demanding to be released. Perhaps he really didn’t have Uri wrapped around his finger like he had thought. After all, this lust-driven monster controlled him, and only Uri could tame it. As he started to pump the length of Kenny’s cock, Uri’s own thrusts quickened, desperate to bring himself to that edge as well. Their hot, shallow breaths filled the air. Their moans signaled the urgency of fulfilling their communal need.

“Fuck, Kenny,” Uri croaked. “Cum for me right now.”

Just as Uri gasped those words in his ear, the release of that pressure deep inside of Kenny unleashed a shockwave of ecstasy, filling every tense muscle and shaking every bone in his body. His needy moans amplified into breathy, staccato shouts as hot, sticky cum spurted from his thundering cock, rolling down and slathering Uri’s hand. Upon Kenny’s insides clenching down on him, Uri achieved release as well, his own seed buried deep inside his beau. For just a minute, their tense bodies held position, riding out the waves and ripples of their orgasm. When finally the moment passed, Uri kissed Kenny’s ear, bringing the other man back to his senses.

“Good boy,” he said quietly. His blue eyes flickered to his hand, slick with milky cum, as he released Kenny’s cock from his grip. “You came a lot…”

“Tch, don’t talk about that. That’s lewd.”

Flustered, Kenny undraped his body from Uri’s chest and shoulder and relaxed. His shaking fingers popped the buttons of his shirt and allowed it to fall from his shoulders as Uri pulled out and fetched two handkerchiefs. One he handed to Kenny to hold against his ass and the other he used to wipe off himself and his hand. Moments later, once each had cleaned himself, they shed their remaining clothes, extinguished the lights, and slipped beneath the covers, entwined in each other’s embrace. In the darkness, Uri placed his head upon the divot in Kenny’s chest and listened to his heart, beating contently. Still, Kenny couldn’t quite shake one thought as his consciousness wavered.

“Uri?”

“Yes, Kenny?”

“You love me—right? Even though I misbehave, and I need a lot of discipline, and often you’re forced to punish me—you still love me, yeah?”

“Yes.” Uri nuzzled the curve of Kenny’s pectoral. “Of course, I love you. And you love me too, right?”

“Tch… only an idiot would ask something so obvious.”

Uri’s beaming face was the light in the darkness. Kenny thought it was a great sight to end the day upon.


	8. INTERLUDE: Visurient

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Valentine's Day, Kenny plans an elaborate gift for Uri.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Visurient (adj.): hungry for visual stimuli, pertaining to the desire evoked from vision.

In the late morning, Uri awoke Kenny with kisses and a bouquet of roses. It seemed only right for their first Valentine’s Day together. Originally, he had planned to go all out, but a few days prior, Kenny had told him that he hadn’t wanted Uri to do anything at all. Still, nothing at all didn’t mesh well with Uri’s sensibilities, so here he was with such a paltry offering to the only man that had ever made his heart thump with wild abandon in the cage of his ribs. With a tight smile, Kenny thanked him. When Uri leaned in for another kiss, the Ackerman stopped him short.

“You have business in town,” he said. “Remember? And you can only come back home at five o’clock sharp.”

Uri might have been upset if Kenny hadn’t dropped a hint as subtle as a Titan kicking in Wall Maria. With feigned resignation, he washed his face, donned his nice blue blazer with his white shirt and black pants, and called upon his coachman. As his coach rolled away from the estate, another simpler carriage was coming up the road. Uri stared at it as it passed by—were the occupants of that carriage Asians? He recalled that Kenny’s grandfather’s brother had run off with an Asian woman before Kenny’s parents had even been born, or at least that was what he thought he had been told. He shrugged it off, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it the entire time he was in town. What surprise required the help of Asian people? When he returned that evening, five minutes prior to the appointed time, he saw those same Asians run out the side door of his villa and drive away in their carriage.

The anticipation was almost too much, but he waited on the porch until his pocketwatch read five o’clock. As soon as the second hand passed over the zero, he threw open the door. A trail of rose petals led him to the drawing room, illuminated faintly by the gasolier overhead. There, Kenny, lying on a table only about a foot off the floor, awaited him. Uri’s eyes immediately fell upon the red silk rope that trussed him from head to toe, making knotted diamond shapes down the front of his body. As if he didn’t have enough to appreciate (and he planned to spend quite a bit of time figuring out how to recreate the most beautiful ropework he had ever seen), strange round shapes, green and white, atop of leaves covered his chest and loins. His heart thudded excitedly in his chest.

“Welcome home, Lord Reiss,” Kenny said, careful to not disturb what was on his chest.

Uri stepped closer to the spectacle. When he kneeled down beside the table, he finally realized that the round shapes were food of some sort—rice wrapped in green sheets with pink, white, and green centers. On a silver serving platter, raised off of the floor, were a bottle of sake and tiny cup, champagne bottle in a bucket of ice and a glass, chopsticks, slivers of pickled ginger, and a bit of mashed wasabi. With a smirk, he picked up the champagne bottle and nudged the cork with his thumb. A loud _pop!_ echoed off the walls. Hardly able to look away, he poured the bubbling brew into the glass.

“What a lovely surprise,” he said. “You must have had some help…?”

“Distant relations,” Kenny answered. “There aren’t many of them left. They were more than happy to share some of their secrets.”

“Oh?”

“Well… it cost most of my monthly allowance.”

“What is this called?” Uri indicated at the mysterious foodstuffs. “I’ve never seen this before…”

“It’s sushi. Originally they used seaweed to wrap it, but now they use the flesh of cucumbers. The centers have salmon, cream cheese, fried shrimp… lots of exotic stuff.”

“I see why it cost your monthly allowance. Heh.” He took a swig of his champagne, bubbling on his tongue. “I may as well take my time and enjoy this… It’s not often that I get such a nice surprise.”

Ignoring the chopsticks (he would only make a fool of himself—that much he already knew), Uri set aside his champagne glass and curiously picked up one of the sushi pieces from Kenny’s belly. It was colder than he had imagined, but it was both sweet and savory on his hesitant tongue. Once he had determined that he liked the taste, he picked up and popped in his mouth the pieces in the more innocuous places of Kenny’s torso. His heart fluttered when he noticed that Kenny tried not to stare.

“So… why are you tied up like this?” Uri asked as he sipped from his champagne glass once more. “You’re perfectly capable of lying still, aren’t you?”

A blush rose on Kenny’s cheek. “Tch… you know why.”

“It’s too late to be so coy.” Uri dragged his index finger along the silk rope that crisscrossed Kenny’s side. “Tell me… what’s the reason for being tied up?”

“You like it, don’t you?”

“Of course, I do.” Uri nudged aside the leaf on Kenny’s belly. His blue eyes took in the sight of the ropes that intersected there over his defined abdominals. “Still, that’s not a reason. Did you expect me to play with my food?”

“Tch, pervert…” A sheepish smile tugged at Kenny’s lips. “I would expect no less of you. You can’t help it. After all, I’m pretty damn sexy.”

“Heh… that isn’t a lie.”

His gaze wandered to Kenny’s chest, where two leaves, also covered in sushi pieces, set upon his pectorals. His fingers traced over the soft rope and the firm lines of his abs as delicately he picked up another sushi piece with his teeth. With a hum of delight, he took his time, his lips brushing against Kenny’s chest each time he ate another piece. Still, Kenny was disciplined enough to not be so easily excitable—chagrined, Uri took that as a personal challenge. Once he had cleared Kenny’s chest of the sushi pieces, he sat upright and smirked.

“I guess I shouldn’t disappoint,” he said. “I wonder what I could do to make you squirm? I’d really like to see how those ropes tighten when you struggle against them.”

Kenny didn’t respond with words, but the blush spread down from his cheeks and across his chest. Uri glanced back at the raised platter on the floor beside him, noting the ice bucket that chilled the champagne. A devilish smirk reached his lips. When he snatched up an ice cube and presented it to his lover, Kenny sucked in a sharp breath.

“D-don’t do that,” he stuttered. “That’s lewd.”

“Oh?” Uri pressed his lips to Kenny’s chest and scraped his teeth across the jutting of his collarbone. His hand poised over Kenny’s pectoral, the ice cube chilling his fingers. “As if letting strangers tie you up and serve exotic food on you isn’t lewd…”

“Tch…”

Uri lifted his gaze to meet Kenny’s, those wide gray orbs trained upon his hand. Kenny’s short breaths only served to excite him further. Uri flicked his wrist, and the ice cube barely skidded across the hardened nipple that poked through the leaf barrier. Still, even with only the light touch upon him, Kenny gasped. Uri repeated his movement, just a tad slower, and relished the moan that escaped his beau’s lips. His lips kissed along his sternum until his mouth found the other nipple. Without moving the leaf, his tongue darted out and drew circles around the sensitive flesh. He hummed his delight upon seeing the tension in Kenny’s muscles.

“What a good boy, being able to hold still like that,” he muttered. “Still…”

Without further ado, he dropped the ice cube upon Kenny’s nipple and held it firm with his fingertip. When Kenny cried out, throwing back his head and arching his back against the table beneath him, Uri dragged the ice cube in circles, careful to keep the leaf barrier in place and to not keep the coldness in one place for too long. His eyes flickered downward, but his sight was obscured by the remaining sushi pieces across Kenny’s loins. He sat upright while keeping the ice cube moving around its target and smirked at Kenny’s attempts to stay still.

“I don’t know if I like how still you’re being,” he said quietly.

“I paid too much for the sushi to throw it in the floor,” Kenny snapped, his face scrunching up. “Finish eating first.”

“Heh.”

The ice beneath Uri’s fingertip had melted by now, so Uri turned his attention to the remaining sushi upon a leaf that covered Kenny’s crotch. Piece by piece, he chipped away at the remainder. His free hand brushed down the insides of Kenny’s trussed thighs, shaking slightly, as his eyes watched for any movement beneath the leaf. As the weight of the sushi was removed, Uri could see Kenny’s hard-on, pressing against the leaf, but well-placed remaining pieces kept him covered. Uri traced the outline, prompting a surprised gasp from Kenny.

“My little slut really loves the attention,” Uri cooed as he teased his lover through the barrier. “I bet you’ve been dripping since you were left like this for me to discover.” His voice dropped to a barely audible whisper. “God, I can’t wait to fuck you…”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Kenny muttered, beginning to squirm more and more. “Just do it then…”

“You didn’t spend your monthly allowance for me to flip you over and exhaust myself in a minute, did you?”

“Tch, I guess not.”

With a hum of bemusement, Uri scavenged for another piece of ice from the bucket, glided it up Kenny’s belly, and resumed teasing Kenny’s nipple. The leaf upon Kenny’s lap threatened to fall away as his hips started to shake. Finally, Uri plucked up the last piece of sushi, and the covering slipped off, revealing Kenny’s erection. Now that the expensive meal had been consumed, his lover was free to squirm without worry. Still, something distracted him. Uri knocked the piece of ice aside and grasped Kenny’s chin.

“What is it?”

Kenny frowned. “You’re supposed to clear your palate before moving on to anything else,” he muttered, “or I think that’s what they said.” He nodded toward the pickled ginger on the serving platter. “Eat some of that.”

“Oh? Is that supposed to be a hint?” With a smirk, Uri picked up a few slices of the pickled ginger and popped them in his mouth. Much to his surprise, the sharp taste brought tears to his eyes, but he tried not to let it show. It burned when he swallowed, but surely enough, all aftertastes were gone from his tongue. “Now… was there something that my little pet wanted?”

A new wave of scarlet washed over Kenny’s cheeks. “Tch, this is your gift. It’s whatever you want to do…”

“I think my pet wants something in particular…” His lip curled. “Maybe I’ll tease you until you cum, and then I’ll make you cum again with my cock. Does that sound agreeable? After all, this little display took a lot of planning. My pet deserves to be rewarded for being such a good boy.”

Kenny’s breath hitched in his throat when he spoke. “Y-yes, Lord Reiss…”

Uri scooted closer to the table, comfortable on his knees and positioned by Kenny’s hips. Momentarily he admired the ropework again, how the knot against the underside of Kenny’s shaft seemed to perk it up just a bit more. Certainly when he squirmed, the soft rope rubbed him firmly, keeping him in a constant state of arousal. His hands traced around the diamond shapes down the center of Kenny’s body from his belly to his hips, following the rope to the aforementioned knot. Uri pressed gently there, and Kenny’s hips shuddered in response. For a long moment, he teased the knot, the rope rubbing against the root of his cock. Captivated, he watched the beading precum on the tip, building until the surface tension broke and spilled down the length of the shaft. Kenny’s little desperate whines made his own pants tighter. Uri looked up momentarily to admire the lines of Kenny’s body when it arched against the table—the sharpness of his hipbones, the hills and valleys of his abdominals, the divot between his firm pectorals, the definition of his collarbone, and the broadness of his shoulders—all components of a man with physical strength far beyond his, all caged in delicate silk rope.

“Goddammit, you’re so fucking beautiful,” he muttered. “What did I do to deserve such a gorgeous lover…?”

One hand firmly wrapped itself about Kenny’s engorged cock and the other rested upon the thickness of his pectoral. Kenny gasped and sighed, rocked and shook as Uri glided the pad of his thumb along the tip, swirling the precum around the head and teasing the sensitive spot on the underside. Chuckling his amusement, Uri leaned down and dragged his tongue up the length, the saltiness of flesh on his taste buds. As his tongue approached the tip, his lips wrapped around the head and tugged the cock into his mouth. Uri’s gaze snapped to Kenny’s face and watched it as the thin eyebrows lifted, his jaw tightened, his lips twisted into a moan that filled the room. Bringing that man to ecstatic delirium at his beckoning filled him with such purpose, such drive.

Moments ticked by, and Uri held just the head of the cock in his mouth, his tongue lapping at sweet beads of precum. Then, when Kenny seemed to accustom himself to the sensation, Uri pulled him to the back of his throat and held him there. Unlike Kenny, whose large mouth could accommodate the entirety of Uri’s length without deep throating, Uri’s mouth could only take two-thirds of Kenny’s shaft, even when he took as much as he could. His hand, gripping the base and still teasing at the rope knot, helped in his shortcoming. For another minute or two, Uri sucked firmly as his hand pumped the lower portion. Then, when those little whines crescendoed to needy moans, he bobbed his head up and down. Kenny’s delirium might have been contagious, he thought as his head began to swim.

“Get on top of me,” Kenny said, the words sticking in his throat. “I want to suck you, too…”

Uri had already unbuttoned his nice jacket and collared shirt and had slid them off his shoulders by the time Kenny said it. Pulling back his mouth slightly, he used one hand to pop the buttons of his trousers and struggled to undress the rest of the way. Already trembling but without pulling the cock out of his mouth, he climbed atop the table and straddled Kenny’s face. His free hand helped to guide his own engorged cock into the other man’s mouth, taking him in down to the root. Tearing his focus from the shudder that overtook him and the building pressure at the base of his spine, Uri hunched his shoulders and took Kenny’s cock to the back of his throat once more. Even so, his hips buckled as Kenny sucked hard on him, like thrusting into hot velvet.

With renewed desperation, Uri bobbed his head up and down, sweetness thick on his tongue. As his muscles tightened and his fingers curled around the ropes, knuckles white, he wasn’t certain how long he would last like this. His pulse started rising, his temples were pounding, and the pressure was so overwhelming and building and ready to blow—still, he clung to that edge, waiting for his lover, much more disciplined than him. He watched Kenny’s thighs as they shuddered until finally they froze, tightened, pressed themselves into the table. Upon his tongue the pressure was palpable. Soon, he knew. Soon—the only thought left in his delirious mind.

Even when his own body begged for release, he delayed that moment of gratification for his beau, his licks slow and deliberate, before finally he let his head fall hard. Beneath his grip, Kenny’s hips squeezed tight and raised to meet his mouth, and Uri mirrored his movements as the pressure burst inside of him. As his own cum filled that hot velvet orifice, Uri welcomed the bubbling heat that spurted onto his tongue and splashed against the back of his throat, stifling his moans. For a long moment, they lingered, relishing the little waves that still ricocheted through their tense bodies. Finally, Uri lifted his hips, scooted off the table, and collapsed in a heap on the floor. Breathlessly, Kenny watched him, the blush heavy on his sharp cheeks.

“Fuck,” Uri muttered. He brushed the sweat-slicked corn-silk hair off his forehead. “That was good…”

“You’re not done, are you?” Kenny’s lips twisted into a smirk. “I thought you were going to make me cum with your cock, too, Lord Reiss.”

“Heh. Give me a minute.” Uri reached over to the serving platter, plucked up another slice of pickled ginger, and popped it into his mouth. “I’m pretty damn superhuman, but I’m not that extraordinary to be ready to go again in ten seconds…” After taking a swig directly from the champagne bottle, he turned to Kenny once more. A smirk danced on his lips. “If you’re so eager, however, I suppose I’ll have to indulge you.” His fingers curled around the ropes on Kenny’s hips. “Flip over.”

Uri dragged Kenny’s legs off the table, rolled him over on his front, and propped his hips up on the edge. The ropework down Kenny’s back was slightly different, although it was still in diamond shapes down the center. His palms dragged down from the sharp edges of Kenny’s scapulae and down to the round ass he so dearly adored. Already he felt a surge of electricity from his fingertips, running directly to the depths of his belly. With one blushing cheek pressed into the table, Kenny glanced back at him over his shoulder. Something about that gray gaze revitalized his loins.

“The lube is behind the champagne bucket, you know,” Kenny muttered, his eyes settling upon his lover’s returning erection. He wriggled his hips. “I thought you had said it would take longer than ten seconds to be ready again.”

Chuckling under his breath, Uri swatted Kenny’s ass. A satisfying _smack_ echoed off the walls. “Are you complaining? Fuck, you’ve got such a smart mouth… I’m going to have to discipline you later this week to remind you of your manners. You’re lucky that I don’t just do that now…”

“Tch, you’re imagining things.” Each breath, heavy, gasping, tightened the ropes about Kenny’s back, leaving little marks on his flesh beneath. With a slight shift of his weight, he raised his hips higher. “I don’t mind if you’re ready again so soon… Just fuck me already, okay?”

“Oh? I suppose I could do that, but you didn’t ask very nicely.” Uri picked up the jar behind the ice bucket, opened it, and smeared the lube over his cock. “I think you should rephrase that request.”

“Should I beg you instead?” Kenny rocked his hips back and forth along the edge of the table. “Come on… fuck me, Lord Reiss!” Soft laughter escaped his grinning lips. “Just do it already.”

“That’s not quite what I was going for,” Uri muttered. “I shouldn’t have to remind you how to ask nicely.” He rose up on his knees on either side of Kenny’s trussed legs. With lube still on his forefinger, he brushed just the pad of his fingertip against Kenny’s hole, prompting a gasp. “Don’t make me tease the proper words out of you.”

“Tch, don’t lecture me when you’re so needy yourself.”

With his free hand resting on Kenny’s hip, Uri rubbed little circles around his hole, eager to swallow up his finger. Kenny held his breath and his hips, those gray orbs blowing wide at the sensation. The trussed man groaned when Uri moved his finger and pressed the tip of his cock against the entrance.

“Fine… fuck me _please_.”

“Now you say _please_?” With an exaggerated sigh, Uri tightened his grip on Kenny’s waist. “I suppose since you said _please_ …”

Kenny opened his mouth to snap back at him, but then Uri pressed his hips flush to his, his cock sliding in to the root effortlessly. Already, Kenny’s insides were hot and twitching, sending shudders up Uri’s spine and making him delirious. His free hand that didn’t grip Kenny’s waist relished beneath his grasp the fullness of the ass, the shakiness of those hips, and the hardness of the other man’s cock, now firmly in his palm. Before he even moved himself, he pumped his partner’s shaft, making him moan and his thighs quiver. Then, when those insides tightened around him, he pulled back and held just the tip of his cock inside. His grip upon the other man fell away when he smirked to himself.

“Do you want to cum from just my cock?” he asked.

“Th-that’s fine,” Kenny replied breathlessly.

“That was a yes or no question.” Uri brought his hand down hard on his ass, feeling the reverberations upon his own cock. “Further reminders for proper etiquette will be punishable offenses. Now… do you want to cum from just my cock?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss,” Kenny muttered, his cheeks like fire. “Please make me cum with your cock.”

Uri slammed his hips flush against Kenny’s again, their flesh slapping against each other. Kenny cried out and squirmed beneath him.

“Good boy,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to hear.”

Over and again, Uri thrusted hard, pulling nearly all the way out and pushing in to the base of his shaft. After a minute, the sensitive spot inside of Kenny came to life, and he offered up his hips and struggled against the ropes to meet Uri’s thrusts. From this position, Uri couldn’t enjoy the sight of Kenny’s arousal, so without second thought he snatched up the silver platter beside him, knocking off everything upon it, and placed it so he could watch Kenny as he got off. Uri relished the sight of the knot in the rope at the base of Kenny’s cock as it rubbed firmly with each of his movements. His own moans rose in his throat.

“I’m going to have to clean that mess you made,” Kenny murmured as the melting ice puddled in the floor beside the spilled champagne and broken wineglass.

“Fuck, sorry.”

Recalling his senses, Uri snatched up the bottle. Most of the champagne had already spilled, but a good fourth remained. Still moving his hips, he took a swig from the bottle. With bubbly on his tongue, he began to succumb to the returning pressure deep inside of him. His gaze returned to the reflective platter, showing him how Kenny’s cock swelled and dripped with precum. Each time his own thrusts hammered on the spot inside of Kenny, that cock stiffened and trembled. A blush rose on his cheeks.

“Goddammit,” he said, “it feels so good…” His free hand swept over the bend in Kenny’s back. “Do you feel good?”

“So good,” Kenny whispered. Uri knew he didn’t lie because his gray eyes were rolled into the back of his head instead of glaring at the mess in the floor. “I’m ready…”

“Ready for what?” Uri cooed.

“I’m ready to cum,” he said, his voice turning into a whine. “Please… make me cum.”

“Good boy,” Uri started to say, but his words suddenly changed into a cry of surprise when Kenny’s insides clenched down on him. His vision shot down to the platter and watched the reflection of his lover’s cock as hot, sticky cum spurted onto the silver. Just the lewd sight was enough to throw him over the edge, and with a wanton gasp he buried his seed deep inside. The sensation of being filled prompted another cry from Kenny and another smaller spurt from his still-hard cock. After a moment of basking in the waves of their mutual satisfaction, Uri collapsed against Kenny’s back.

“Oh my god…” He fumbled to bring the champagne bottle to his lips for another swig. “That was…”

“…amazing,” Kenny muttered, his cheeks red. His focus returned to the mess on the floor. “Well, go ahead and untie me. I gotta clean that mess up before it ruins the hardwood.”

Uri rose upon his knees once more and pulled out slowly. He set aside the champagne bottle and for a moment, his hands hovered over the knot down the backs of Kenny’s legs. Then a sly grin took over his face.

“No, the hardwood can easily be fixed,” he said.

“Tch, don’t be an idiot.”

“I told you further digressions of proper etiquette would be punishable offenses. Looks like my work isn’t done.” Uri rose to his feet. “Looks like you’re in immediate need of punishment.”

“Wh-what are you talking about…?”

With a grunt, Uri spun Kenny, still bent over on his knees, to face him and threw him over his shoulder. Every muscle in his body screamed, but it was worth it to make Kenny swoon just this once.

“Bedroom. Now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyyyy, be sure to follow me on Instagram! @caitybellackeryandere ~~~~


	9. Cliff's Edge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenny knows Uri means well when he keeps the truth from him, but it doesn't stop the hurt. Rod will tell him everything he wants to know without sparing his feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **TRIGGER WARNING**
> 
> I was really hesitant to post this chapter because it hurts me a lot and I feel really bad about hurting you guys too but pleeeeeeease I promise that I will make the ouchies go away next chapter so don't hate me please. :'^)
> 
> I did some really nice Uriken cosplay pictures with my fiancee on Instagram and I still have a bunch to post so please follow me at @caitybelleackeryandere !!
> 
> Also, in case you were wondering, yes, listen to "Cliff's Edge" by Hayley Kiyoko while reading the first scene and feel your heart shatter~

“I think I’ll go see Kuchel soon.”

Uri glanced up from his breakfast and to Kenny at the opposite end of the table. His heart stopped in his chest momentarily— _this conversation again_. Quickly looking away, he swirled his spoon around the bowl of oatmeal.

“I think you should just let her be,” he muttered. “You said it yourself once. She wants nothing to do with you.”

Kenny didn’t seem deterred by Uri’s response.

“She wanted nothing to do with me because I didn’t ever help her situation and instead just made it worse,” he continued. “Now I can actually help her. Don’t you think it’s possible? She could live on the Reiss property—“

Uri shuddered at the thought. Already there was a woman on a farm owned by the Reiss family that Rod had made into his personal prostitute. It wasn’t like his brother needed more women to victimize.

“No.”

“But if she lived on the property, no one could hurt her again.” Kenny settled his gaze just below Uri’s chin, unable to look him in the eye. “I’m pretty sure she has a child, but it wouldn’t cause any problems.”

“I said _no_ , Kenny.”

“Well, why the hell not?” Kenny threw down the fork in his hand, clanging across the mahogany table. “At least give me a reason. Don’t think that I don’t have any power to question you, because I sure as hell do.”

“Do you really think that Kuchel would be safe from my brother?” Uri shook his head. “Be smart, not emotional. If you wanted Kuchel to be safe, you would send her far away from here, as far away as you can get her from Rod.”

Uri returned to his oatmeal when Kenny didn’t respond, but then he heard the tinkling of the silver as Kenny picked up his fork once more and stabbed at his eggs.

“Would Rod really do that?” he asked quietly. The tines of the fork scraped against the plate, the discord drowning out the hurt in his voice. “Is he really capable of hurting her like that?”

“Of course, and he wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to you if he could or if he were so inclined,” Uri grumbled. “You can’t bring Kuchel here. If you want to get her out of the Underground, then you would send her to Wall Rose or Wall Maria.”

“She wouldn’t be safe without me.”

“Why do you think that? You couldn’t make her feel safe before.”

“She would go back to her old habits.” Kenny attempted to take another bite of his food, but he set the fork down halfway to his mouth and shoved aside the plate. “She doesn’t know anything else now. If she could stay with me, I could make sure she doesn’t whore herself out. I could save her from that life.”

“You haven’t even heard from her in eight months. It’s not like she is seeking you out to save her or even to have anything to do with you.”

Uri shouldn’t have felt so sick to his stomach when he said that. The last letter from Kuchel had arrived a month prior. Her writing had deteriorated to near illegibility, and her words had been desperate for help. Still, it had been too late to start showing Kenny her letters. After all, how would Kenny have responded if he had known that Uri had been withholding her attempts at communication? No, it was best for Kenny to completely forget her. Those gray eyes flickered dimly as Kenny considered Uri’s words.

“I wish she would have told me why she didn’t want to talk to me again.”

A stray tear streaked down his chiseled face. Uri might not have seen it if he hadn’t watched Kenny closely all the time.

“Women,” Uri grumbled. Suddenly, he didn’t feel like eating either. “Kuchel is a very damaged woman. There’s a very good chance that you’ll never see her again, and she’s probably just fine with that.”

“I’m not going to give up,” Kenny sighed. He leaned back in his chair and directed his far-off stare toward the window. He tugged uncomfortably at the red collar about his neck. “I can’t… She has a child. Even if she wouldn’t come with me, maybe I could convince her to let me take the child.”

“I couldn’t allow that. You couldn’t possibly take a child away from its mother. Who do you think you are? She wants nothing to do with you, and you need to learn to respect that.”

“You just don’t want me to have anything to do with anyone who isn’t you.” The words were just loud enough for Uri to hear if he didn’t breathe. When he felt Uri’s eyes upon him, Kenny seemed to back down. “I mean… I don’t know if I could actually raise a child. It’s not like I’m actually raising Frieda, even if it feels like I’m the only one ever with her sometimes.”

“You and I aren’t suitable to be parents.” Uri crossed and uncrossed his legs uncomfortably. “You know as well as I do what they say. You’re a murderer, and I’m a monster. There are no blurred lines there.”

“Right. We aren’t suitable to be parents.” Kenny rose to his feet and snatched his plate off the table. “I’m not really hungry anymore. I guess I’ll start cleaning up.”

Once Kenny had left the dining room, Uri leaned on his elbow and rubbed his eyes. Every day for the past two months, since he last went to Ovud District, Kenny had brought up the subject of Kuchel and her appalling situation more and more, his frustration becoming more apparent each time. For the past two weeks, this very same conversation had played out with very little variation. He sighed. At least Kenny hadn’t screamed at him today. He slipped a wrinkled sheet of parchment out of his jacket and placed it on the table when Kenny returned to the dining room, his face redder and blotchier than it had been when he had left moments before.

“What is this?” he snapped.

“I didn’t want to show you this,” Uri muttered, “because I thought it would hurt you. It arrived about a fortnight ago. Please forgive me for not showing it to you sooner.”

His lips twisted in a frustrated grimace, Kenny snatched up the parchment. Uri couldn’t watch him read the forged letter, whether it was the fear that Kenny would know the contents had been faked or of his reaction. Perhaps it had been a mistake, but it had been Rod’s suggestion for Kenny to reach closure. He sat, unmoving, as Kenny scanned the short letter over and over again. After the longest moment, Kenny crumpled the parchment in his hand. Uri’s heart sank at the sound of Kenny’s bitter laughter.

“And you think I should give up,” he muttered, “because she told me once or twice over the past ten years that I should forget about her.”

“I just don’t want you to hurt anymore.”

Kenny grasped Uri’s plate and trudged out of the room. “I’m tired of hurting, too,” was all Uri could hear of his muttering. Uri gulped nervously and rose to his feet when Kenny returned to the room.

“Kenny, I have to know,” he said, “that you would never leave me.”

“Why do you keep asking that?” The words were ragged, the edges sharp. Kenny seemed to tower over Uri, his face twisted in anger but for those sad, honest eyes. “Do you really want to spare my hurt, or is it your insecurity that needs to be soothed? Are you really afraid that I wouldn’t want to come back if I went after her?” He dragged his fingers through his hair, strands falling across his pallid cheek. “I just feel like you’re swinging back and forth like a pendulum, and when I feel like I know your motivation, you say something else. Goddammit, Uri, I fucking love you, but please just be honest with me.”

Uri clutched the lapel of Kenny’s jacket and pulled him down to his level. “I have been honest. I want you to be happy but not at the expense of my own happiness.”

“That’s only fair, I guess.”

Not even a moment later, their lips met. Just as quickly, Kenny broke it off, muttering that he needed to finish cleaning the table. Uri, however, had plans to make the table dirty again and told him not to bother. His hands had already undone the buttons of Kenny’s shirt, his eyes taking in the sight of the Ackerman’s bare torso, carved like a fine marble statue. Little sighs and touches encouraged Uri to continue, and before he knew it, he stepped back and surveyed his handiwork, a confident smile upon his lips. Now, Kenny, wearing naught but the red leather bell collar around his neck, had draped himself across the dining room table, his wrists firmly bound to one end and his ankles to the other end. If he hadn’t been so tall, Uri thought to himself, the improvised restraints—the dirtied tablecloth, two leather belts, and the sash from the curtain—might not have worked so well. Stepping around to the head of the table, Uri leaned down and brushed his fingers through Kenny’s hair.

“Does that feel okay?” he asked quietly. “Are you comfortable?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss.” Kenny purred at the touch against his scalp. “Please, go on.”

Something about Kenny, saying his proper title, his gray eyes overflowing with something between admiration and wonder, made Uri’s heart thump against his ribcage. During times like these, when his cheeks swelled and the scarlet flush spread across his body, when he was overwhelmed by his desire, Kenny was honest. Uri wished, however, that there were a way other than arousal to inspire this honesty in either of them. He pulled back his hand and stepped away from the table. He couldn’t stand to look any longer at those eyes.

“Good,” he muttered. “I’m going to get some things. Gather your focus. I’ll be right back.”

Only a few minutes later, Uri returned with a small basket of supplies, gathered from the trunk in his bedroom, and placed it in the seat of the chair at the foot of the table. Gently, he touched Kenny’s foot with one hand while sifting through the contents of the basket with the other. He had hoped Kenny might not notice the tenderness of his touch—it wasn’t at all like him to feel this way, this yearning. His stomach churned, painful and tender, but warm and fuzzy at the same time. With a huff, he pushed the thought out of his mind for the moment, fetched a riding crop from the basket, and climbed onto the edge of the table. Kenny watched him with curiosity and anticipation as Uri straddled his waist. He brushed the crop from Kenny’s bound wrists, down his shaking arms, and to his blushing cheek.

“I want to try something new with you,” Uri said. “I’m confident that I’ve trained you well enough for it.”

Kenny perked up slightly and rubbed his cheek against the crop. “I trust you, Lord Reiss.” His pink tongue peeked out shyly and touched the cool leather. “Please use me as you see fit.”

Uri tugged away the crop and laid it at the table’s edge. When he bent down, his lips pressed to Kenny’s, their tongues entwining and their teeth scraping against each other. Sometimes, Uri couldn’t tell the difference between Kenny’s hatred and admiration in day-to-day life, but his kisses—hot, passionate, needy, _desperate_ —were as honest as his eyes. After a moment, he broke away, and trailed kisses down Kenny’s neck and to his collarbone. Pushing hesitancy out of his thoughts, he lowered his hips down upon Kenny’s and grinded his ass against him. At first, Kenny jumped out of surprise—Uri wasn’t typically so direct in his touch. As his cock swelled at the pressure against it, he relaxed slightly right before he started to squirm.

“Lord Reiss, if I may ask…?”

“Yes?” Uri nipped at Kenny’s clavicle, his flesh sweet on his tongue. His hips twisted against Kenny’s. “Speak, please.”

“What do you mean when you say you want to try something new?” Kenny furrowed his brow. “Do you mean that you want to switch positions…?”

Uri tried not to blush, but his cheeks swelled with heat in spite of his confidence. “Yes, that is correct. I’m going to ride your cock to orgasm. Do you think you can behave well enough for me to be able to do that?”

Kenny’s lip drew back into a sheepish grin. His hips shook beneath Uri’s weight. “I’ll behave as best I can. Have you done that before…?”

“Yes, of course.” Uri diverted his gaze and sat upright. He tugged his shirt up and over his head, mussing his platinum hair. “You shouldn’t worry so much about me. Just focus on yourself.” His hands trailed down his sides and to the fly of his pants. “Be a good boy, and be my dildo. I’ll reward you for good behavior.”

Sucking in a deep breath, Kenny nodded stiffly. His eyes never left him as Uri struggled out of the rest of his clothes. His chest expanded rapidly, scarlet spreading across it and down across his belly. Uri had thought that Kenny might stop looking at him that way after a few weeks, but those gray eyes filled with ineffable adoration always watched him with rapt attention, anticipation, devotion—the honesty in those eyes as naked as Uri was now. Kenny wouldn’t admit it, but he didn’t have to. Uri knew, and that frightened him more than anything else ever could, perhaps because he felt the same way. He pushed his shoulders back and straightened his spine.

“I’m not feeling very patient this morning,” he whispered. “I know exactly what I want, and you’re going to give it to me.” He crawled closer to Kenny’s face and straddled his shoulders. One hand grasped Kenny’s hair while the other gripped his own cock. “Be a good boy and suck me.”

Without any hesitation at all, Kenny craned his neck forward and brushed his lips along Uri’s cock, coming to life beneath his kisses. Those honest eyes never diverted their gaze from Uri’s as he parted his lips and dragged his teeth gently down his erection. He must have sensed the urgency in Uri’s gaze when his open mouth, grinning slightly, hovered at the head. His tongue darted out and lapped up the small bead of precum on the tip, prompting a ragged gasp from Uri. Again, his tongue flicked across the tip, and his gaze intensified when Uri shuddered, the muscles of his thighs tightening against Kenny’s shoulders. Then, as Kenny continued the tease with his tongue, Uri couldn’t anymore stand to look back into those gray eyes. Who did Kenny think he was, locking eyes with him, the king of the world in these walls? With a snarl, he tightened his grip on Kenny’s hair and thrust his hips, forcing his cock into Kenny’s mouth.

“I told you to suck,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “Be a good boy, and do as you’re told!”

Uri knew he should have been more aroused by the act of pleasure instead of by the conflict that plagued Kenny whenever he snapped cruelly at his pet. Uri shouldn’t have been turned on by the flicker of anger in those gray eyes, by the tightness in his throat, by the subtle clenching of his fists, by the way he breathed in sharply through his nose. If he blinked, he might have missed it. In just a split second, all that was Kenny faded away into subspace. His eyes glazed over, losing their honesty, their anger, their adoration, everything but hurt—gone. Only then did Uri fully trust Kenny. Only then did Uri know he was in control. Only then did Uri think Kenny could actually love him.

“That’s better,” Uri said quietly. “Just like that…”

Even when Kenny swallowed anxiously, it did nothing to relieve the tightness of his throat. Screwing his eyes shut, he pulled the entire shaft in his mouth and sucked firmly. Uri breathed in sharply, the silken tongue and orifice massaging his cock, but even now the thought of those eyes plagued him. Each time he pushed the images out of his mind, they returned tenfold. When his own eyes closed, he saw those gray orbs, dissecting his very soul. His hands on Kenny’s hair shook. How long would he have to suffer that gaze? He tapped Kenny’s cheek and released his grip on his hair.

“That’s good enough,” he grumbled. “Let go.”

When Kenny slackened his mouth, Uri slid his cock out, rose up on his thighs, and stumbled off of the table and to his feet. Without looking to see if Kenny ever opened his eyes, he crossed over to the small basket at the foot of the table and took out a jar and a rubber cock ring. Slowly, he climbed upon the table once more, this time seating himself beside Kenny’s hips. That was when he noticed that Kenny stared at the ceiling and held his breath. With a frown, Uri bent down and kissed Kenny’s abdominal muscles.

“Kenny?”

“Yes?”

Kenny had answered too quickly, too flippantly. Uri’s heart squeezed within his chest.

“Is something wrong, Kenny?”

“No.” His voice broke slightly, betraying his hurt. “Keep going.”

“Are you upset with me?”

“No.” His eyes refocused upon Uri. “I’m not upset. I said to keep going.”

Uri chewed on his lip. Maybe he could have believed Kenny if he hadn’t known the truth of those eyes. Still, he shook his head and nuzzled the tight muscles of his belly. There wasn’t any point in forcing Kenny to speak.

“Okay, then I’ll keep going. If you need me to stop—“

“I told you to keep going!” Kenny roared, struggling against his bonds. “I won’t tell you to stop. It’s not my place to tell you what to do.” His lip twisted into a morbid grin, his shoulders pressing into the surface of the table. “Fuck me up. Stop pretending to be kind, and do as you feel. Take me, crush me into a little ball, and reform me into exactly what you want. That’s what you’re trying to do, right? So go ahead. Fuck me up.”

Uri surprised himself by suddenly laughing.

“Of course, right?” he spat, his words interrupted by the heaving of his chest. “You see right through me. I wish I could know you like that. I wish I could see you for what you are. I guess I’ll just have to settle on destroying every bit of you and starting from scratch. I’m so glad that we’re on the same page.”

“So what the fuck are you waiting for?” Kenny rolled his head back and arched his spine, offering himself up to the king. “Do as you please. I want you to do it.”

“Good boy.” Uri’s fingers glided down Kenny’s belly and wrapped around his cock, thudding in his grip. With his other hand, he opened the jar next to him and slathered his fingers in lubricant. When he smeared the lubricant up and down the length of the shaft and swirled it around the head, he blushed and muttered under his breath.

“Goddammit,” Uri grumbled, “st-stop getting bigger! You’re really going to make me take all that…”

Kenny narrowed his gray eyes in spite of the crimson flush across his angular face. “It’s not like you to think that I could break you.” He wriggled his hips and sighed dramatically. “Please, Lord Reiss, let me fuck you.” His words twisted into a cackle, echoing off the walls. “I didn’t realize you could be so nervous about this, what with how lewd you are…”

Uri grimaced slightly at his words and strengthened his resolve. He fumbled to fit the cock ring onto Kenny and pushed it down against the root of his cock. With a gulp, he straddled his beau, his hips quivering as he slowly lowered himself onto Kenny. Kenny blinked and shuddered slightly.

“Are you not going to prep first?” he asked. “Isn’t that going to be painful for you?”

Uri chuckled. “Don’t you realize that I have the healing capabilities of a Titan?” he asked. “Sure, it’ll hurt for a moment, but then I’ll be over the pain.”

“Oh… heh, okay.”

Digging his fingernails into the flesh of Kenny’s thighs, Uri gasped when Kenny’s cock pushed inside of him. Those gray eyes widened, and Kenny squirmed beneath him.

“Your insides are really fucking hot,” he breathed. “Is that normal?”

“My internal temperature is higher than most humans.” With gritted teeth, Uri lowered his hips until they were flush with Kenny’s. “It’s not painful, right?”

“No, it’s just very warm.” A new wave of scarlet rushed into Kenny’s cheeks. “It feels good…”

Uri exhaled. He didn’t know what had moved him to do this on that morning, but it was a nice change of pace. Something about it reminded him of fond memories of being trained by a handsome noble, even if they were actually the recollections of the coordinate and not himself. Still, it felt good in that moment, the nostalgia filling him with buzzed excitement. Muscle memory that didn’t belong to him moved his hips, rocking slowly up and down the length of Kenny’s cock. His blood rushed to his face.

“It’s been a long time…”

“For you or for the coordinate?” Kenny met his gaze. “Your eyes… they’re black again.”

It was true that the coordinate had bubbled up inside of him to relish being taken like this. The memories melded with his own, blurring what he had actually experienced and what his ancestors had done. If the sex lives of his predecessors hadn’t flashed before his eyes a hundred times, he might have blushed. Instead, he cracked a devious smile.

“Just focus on yourself,” he muttered. “I can handle myself just fine.”

After a moment of rocking his hips, the initial strange feeling passed, and a warm, thudding pressure filled his insides. Hesitantly at first, his hips quickened their pace until finally Kenny’s cock hit his most sensitive spot deep inside him. With a wanton gulp, Uri held that position momentarily before dropping his hips once more, the head of the cock hammering on his prostate. He dragged his fingernails down the curves of Kenny’s pectorals and abdomen, precum dripping down his own erection. Dammit, he should have been able to last longer than this… The sound of the opening door shattered his focus.

“Okay, Uri, here’s your paperwork,” Rod muttered, oblivious, as he stepped into the dining room. He lifted his gaze to the scene before him, his face turning scarlet. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize…”

For just a moment, Uri and Kenny both froze, unsure of how to respond. When Uri realized that Rod had fixated his gaze upon Kenny, he snatched up the nearest thing—the closed jar of lubricant beside him—and aimed for Rod’s head. It soared past his brother when he ducked and clanged on the floor behind him.

“G-get out!” he hissed. “Just leave the papers on my desk, and get out!”

“Sorry, little brother.” By the tone of his voice and as evidenced by the twisted smirk on his lips, Rod had meant it in more ways than one. His dark eyes didn’t divert their attention from the handsome Ackerman. “I’ll come back later.”

Once Rod had left, shutting the door behind him, Uri shook. He wasn’t sure why he felt so threatened by his brother’s presence. Sucking in a deep breath, his gaze darted downward at his withered erection. Kenny twisted his hips, moving around inside Uri. His eyes hadn’t changed, the admiration and love still there.

“I want to keep making you feel good, Lord Reiss.” His voice was a pitch higher than a breathy whisper. “Please… Keep doing what you were doing.”

Uri couldn’t deny the man he loved, even if the feral being within him preoccupied itself with thoughts of hunting down his brother for daring to so blatantly stare at Kenny. His hips ground slowly against Kenny’s, his spirits returning to him. Just moments later, he bounced up and down on Kenny’s cock, and the spot inside of him came back to life. His breath hitched in his throat when he spoke.

“Do I always make you feel this way?” A shockwave of pleasure shook his entire body for just a split second, and his thighs gripped Kenny’s waist. “I have to know…”

“Insecurity doesn’t suit you, Lord Reiss,” Kenny gasped. His hips ground hard against Uri’s, his entire body struggling against his makeshift ties. “If you want, you could touch me, too…”

“But I threw the lube away.”

“Fuck it. That’s fine. Just make me feel how you feel right now…”

After a moment’s hesitation, Uri stuck his right hand’s index and middle fingers in his mouth, swirling them in his saliva. Once his fingers were wet, he reached back and felt for the puckered entrance. Kenny seemed to swallow his fingers whole, the soft pads of his fingertips easily finding the spot that made his mouth twist into an O and his back arch against the table. A new wave of blood rushed into his cheeks when he wondered if his lips made the same shape. “So good,” escaped from Kenny’s lips, sending a shiver down along Uri’s spine and to the tip of his dripping cock. His vision turned white just as he approached the edge. Still, he held himself together as he focused on bringing Kenny to that edge with him. His hips moved just enough to maintain the building pressure at the base of his spine as his fingers made scissoring motions against his beau’s prostate.

“Fuck,” Uri panted, his eyes crossing. “I’m so fucking close… Are you almost there, Kenny?”

“Yes.”

The staccato assurance of that one word filled Uri with such ineffable delight. Something about riding that cock, being solely responsible for Kenny’s pleasure, and teasing that sensitive spot deep inside of him renewed Uri’s confidence, as if for once he could be completely certain of his sexual prowess. His head thrown back, his mouth wide, his body tense, he held his breath. Desperately, he clung to that edge, waiting for Kenny to give in first.

“Cum for me,” he said with the last of his breath.

Uri slammed the full force of his hips down onto Kenny. When he saw Kenny’s gray eyes go wide and his entire body tense, when he felt Kenny’s release inside of him, he allowed ecstasy to overtake his body as well. With a gasp that very nearly echoed off the walls, Uri succumbed to the overwhelming pressure, his cum spraying across Kenny’s chiseled abs and dribbling down his own pulsing cock. When the moment had passed and all that was left of the feeling was a dizzy rush to their heads and the thundering of their hearts in their chests, each gazed at the other, their cheeks and chests splotchy and red, and their mouths gulping for oxygen. A playful smirk tugged at Kenny’s lips.

“What a rare, delectable, lewd display, Lord Reiss,” he said.

Chuckling, Uri leaned down, grasped Kenny’s face, and planted a kiss on his lips. “Only ever for my good boy.” He pulled his hips away from Kenny’s, gasping from the sudden emptiness within him. “Don’t get too spoiled, though. It’s not like I’ll do this often.”

Uri jumped slightly when he felt Kenny’s hand upon his cheek. Then he realized that Kenny had easily slipped free from his bind and had only pretended to be helpless to Uri’s touch. In that moment, something clicked in his mind—Kenny had voluntarily given up control to him, had trusted him completely all this time, but he had done nothing to deserve this perfect creature. All he had ever done was betray this beautiful man. Kenny frowned and brushed Uri’s platinum hair away from his face.

“Why are you crying?” he asked.

“I wish I could tell you, but I’m so afraid of what you might do.”

Before Kenny could answer, Uri slid off of the table and fetched his clothes. Without looking back at Kenny, who struggled only slightly to untie himself, he clothed himself and stumbled out of the dining room. He wished that Kenny would have pursued him, but he didn’t. Instead, after he shut himself in the office with the paperwork that his brother had left for him, he listened to Kenny’s footsteps as the other man left the villa. Of course, he was going to see Frieda like he always did after breakfast. Uri’s crying, no matter how much he wished it, would never stop him from his daily routine. Perhaps, Uri thought, he should have swallowed his own pride and taken up the pursuit.

The sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when Kenny returned later that evening, soaked and chilled to the bone, reminded him that hindsight was a bitch.

 

* * *

 

 

Kenny should have known no good would come of it when Rod asked him to meet him at the abandoned chapel on the Reiss property. Still, his curiosity had gotten the best of him. When he opened the creaky doors, Rod stood inside, unmoving next to the altar, shrouded in darkness. The short, rotund man greeted him with an eerie, tight-lipped smirk.

“I’m glad you decided to come,” he said. “I wanted to tell you the truth. I hope you’ll better understand my motivation for everything soon.”

“Go ahead and tell me,” Kenny spat. “What is Uri hiding from me?”

“It’s not as simple as that. First, there’s something I need to show you.”

Rod walked past the altar and opened a trapdoor in the floor. When Kenny didn’t budge, he beckoned him with an impatient finger wag. With a sigh of resignation, Kenny stormed across the chapel and followed the elder Reiss brother through the trapdoor and down the winding stone steps. He had expected to need a torch, but the walls illuminated the stairwell. His fingertips brushed against the cool, glowing stones as Rod led the way. What a strange creation…

“You know that Uri inherited his power, correct?”

“Yes.” Kenny cast his gaze upon the back of Rod’s head. “I’m not certain how, but I know he got the power from your father. If it’s passed down genetically, then how did you escape the curse?”

“It’s hard to explain. Allow me to show you a sacred space.”

“You’re not really just luring me down here to rape or murder me, right?”

Kenny laughed halfheartedly as his own joke, but Rod didn’t dignify the remark. That worried Kenny more than anything else. They crossed through a large underground cavern, also lit by the stones in the walls, until they approached the far end, where a natural platform about twenty feet high had formed. Something felt off, in more ways than one. Rod pointed to the stairs leading up either side of the platform.

“I want to show you something,” he said. “Go up there.”

Really, Kenny had no reason to suspect Rod’s motives. Still, as he climbed the stairs, he couldn’t help but cast a wary gaze back at the short man. Once in the center of the platform, he noticed the chains on the floor and on the ceiling. He shuddered.

“Go ahead and tell me, Lord Reiss. I want to know, and you said you’d tell me everything.”

“You love Uri, right?” Rod’s dark gaze swept over Kenny. “And you love Frieda as your own child, don’t you?”

“What’s your fucking point?”

“Uri wasn’t supposed to have this curse,” he muttered. “It was supposed to be me, but I’ll confess… I had a moment of weakness when the time came to accept it.”

“What are you trying to tell me?”

“Turn around and kneel down on the floor.”

“What?” Kenny shook his head. “Why would I do that?”

“I want to show you something. It’s hard to describe. It’ll be easier if you just do as I say.”

“Why do I get the feeling that you’re threatening me?”

“That’s because I am.”

Before Kenny could respond, Rod drew an already-cocked pistol from his coat pocket. The Ackerman’s blood ran cold. Theoretically, he could have easily overpowered the other man if it had been any other weapon. If he so much as moved, the bloody drag marks would be all that might have let Uri know his fate. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

“What is this really?”

“This is about the truth.” Rod raised the gun to Kenny’s chest. “Do as I said. Turn around and kneel down, then raise your arms over your head.”

“Are you going to kill me?” The words came out weaker than Kenny had intended. “If I do as you ask, that is…”

“No,” Rod answered. “I won’t kill you if you follow my instructions.”

“I have to know for sure.” Kenny’s mind reeled as he scanned for possible escape routes. “Release the hammer on that gun, and I’ll believe you.”

“If you move at all against me, I just want you to know that I don’t ever go just halfway. If I shoot you once, I’ll shoot you again until you stop moving.” Rod’s dark gaze, unblinking, watched Kenny’s eyes. “I know what you’re thinking. You can’t escape, not this time.”

“What’s stopping you from accidentally pulling the trigger?” Kenny’s heart raced in his chest. “Grant my request, and I won’t give you any shit.”

Rod nodded and released the hammer of the pistol. Kenny didn’t dare call him on his bluff, however, and did as he requested, turning away to face the cavern, kneeling down, and raising his hands over his head. Cold metal closed around his wrists, and heavy chains wrapped around his waist, the click of a lock echoing throughout the cavern.

“What is this really…?”

“My father was last chained up here about ten years ago,” Rod muttered. Kenny heard his footsteps as he paced behind him. “I was eighteen, and Uri was sixteen. See, with this curse, it deteriorates the body, essentially killing the host within thirty years. My father was dying, and I was expected to take his place. I…. couldn’t do it. I knew all too well what would happen, and to be honest, I’m afraid of dying.” His voice dropped lower, harder to hear. “I know you are, too, so we have that much in common.”

“What are you trying to say?” Kenny snapped, in spite of the twisting of his stomach. “How does that even work?”

“In order to transform the first time, the host must be injected with a serum. He turns into a mindless Titan only until he devours a human Titan shifter. Then he can change back to normal.”

“Devour a human Titan shifter…?” Kenny froze. “Are you saying that Uri had to devour his father…?” He shook his head. “So… you said you were afraid to die, so you didn’t want an early death, being devoured by a Titan…”

“It’s true, and I won’t deny it. Uri is stronger in that regard. He was always so good before he was cursed. Now look at him. Heh. Uri realized the futility of saving humanity. Whatever my father saw, he finally understood it. Uri is going to die sooner than later, and he’ll eagerly embrace death and leave you, the man he supposedly loves, to suffer alone until you either live to see what he saw in his mind or you die without ever knowing anything at all.”

It shouldn’t have bothered him. Of course, everybody died. But then he thought about the timespan. Uri had lived with the curse already for ten years. At most, Kenny had twenty years left to spend with him. Kenny would only be just shy of fifty when he would lose Uri. It seemed so far away, but yet, chained up here, how Uri would eventually go, it seemed so real. No body to mourn, no tombstone to visit. Kenny couldn’t explain the tears in his eyes.

“So that’s why you want me to take care of Frieda,” he muttered. “She’s going to kill Uri, and then I’ll belong to her.”

“Yes—well, heh. Let me clarify that as well.” Suddenly, Rod stepped in front of him and grasped his chin. His eyes burned with hellfire. “You’re under the illusion that Uri owns you. Really, everything that is Uri’s is mine, and everything that Frieda ever will have will be mine as well. That’s why I didn’t want the curse. I would lose what matters most to me.”

“Power, because Uri couldn’t give a shit about this world, knowing how it’ll end soon.” Kenny recoiled at Rod’s touch. “But you don’t really care at all about that curse… All it is to you is a way to control people. You’re the one who tells Uri whom I need to kill next, aren’t you?”

“Of course. All the work that Uri does is given by me. All the paperwork he signs is first reviewed by me. That contract that exists between you had to be approved by me.” A grin stretched across his face. “I own Uri, and therefore I own you.”

“So what now?” Kenny snarled, struggling to escape the clutch on his chin. “You didn’t bring me here just to tell me that Uri is a ticking time bomb. Tell me the real reason!”

“I just told you. Don’t you understand?” Rod brushed his thumb across Kenny’s trembling lip. “I didn’t understand at first why Uri saved you. Then I understood. You’re dangerous, but you’re perfectly fucking harmless to us. You talk big, but you’ll cower with the right words. Never mind the fact that you’re just as beautiful as the society papers describe you… I can’t help it. It’s only natural.”

At that moment, Kenny thought of his sister. He wondered if the squad leader who had raped her had thought it only natural as well.

“Only natural?” He huffed. “I could see if I were a woman, but there’s nothing natural about this. Your brother fucks a man, and you’re jealous because you want to own someone too. That’s all, right? It’s just your way of stealing everything from Uri, isn’t it?”

“You’re right. I can’t stand for Uri to have something that I can’t have. That’s why I’ll ruin it for him.” Rod's eyes lit up with morbid delight. “Uri kept Kuchel’s letters from you. They’re in the bottom drawer of his desk. Last letter he received said she was very sick. I don’t know. It’s been a while. She may already be dead.”

“That’s not true,” Kenny stuttered, averting his gaze from his assailant. “Uri wouldn’t keep that from me—“

“Of course, he would. He’s desperate to own you completely.” Rod leaned toward him, cloaked in shadows. “Now, be a good boy, hold still, and be quiet. You remember how bloodied and beaten up your sister was after she put up a fight, right?”

“Do you expect to get away with this?” Kenny held his breath. He scanned everywhere for an escape, but he had been trapped. His heart sank in his chest.

“Of course, I’ll get away with it. You wouldn’t break my brother’s heart, would you? After all, I couldn’t possibly be strong enough to overpower you.” Rod drew the pistol from his pocket once more and pressed it to Kenny’s temple. “If you tried to say anything, I’d say you seduced me and just regretted it later. After all, it’s believable, right? I showed you this cave because I thought you were interested in our family history, but then you grabbed me and forced yourself upon me. Imagine how heartbroken and distraught he would be if he knew you were going around behind his back and blowing other men… Besides, your sister had witnesses and proof and still couldn’t get the court to believe her. What makes you any more special?”

“Please, don’t do this…”

“Oh, you’re fine with being tied up and fucked by my brother but not by me? That isn’t fair…”

Later that evening, when Kenny returned to the villa, Uri asked him why he was soaking wet and how he had ruined his clothes. Kenny only told him that he had fallen in the river but not why. He had hoped to die but couldn’t seem to drown himself once his life started to flash before his eyes. After all, it seemed he and his sister had been doomed to the same fate, and running hadn’t done her a hell of a lot of good. When later Uri glimpsed his bruised wrists and waist, he asked again what had happened, but Kenny couldn’t speak. In fact, he avoided speaking again for the next week.

Kenny never did venture to look into the bottom drawer to see if Rod had spoken the truth of Kuchel’s letters’ languishing there. Instead, in the early morning, he told Uri of a job that would take him away for a few days. If his lover had known the truth, he didn’t betray it. He only asked for a promise that he would return within the week. Without delay, he packed one bag and took a rented carriage all the way to the Capitol.

At the brothel not so cleverly disguised as a boarding house, Kenny found the shriveled corpse of his sister. However, he found as well one living creature, crouched on the other side of the room and clinging onto life with the last of his strength. “Just Levi,” he called himself then. Kenny didn’t dare correct him on his name. He wouldn’t burden this child with the crown of thorns he had suffered his entire life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sweats nervously*
> 
> please don't come burn my house down k


	10. Idée Fixe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an extended absence, Kenny returns from the Underground for just one night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TFW you hurt your main character in the last chapter update and readers you haven't heard from in weeks start messaging you and you're like :')
> 
> I've been really inspired and I'm trying to make up for the fact that I didn't update from October to February due to my seasonal depression so have two chapters within a week and four updates within the past month.
> 
> Bonus: no triggers in this chapter yaaaaaay~

A week into Kenny’s absence, Uri had thought of all the things he would say to hurt his lover like he hurt alone in the middle of the night. When Kenny had said that he had to leave for a week for a job, Uri had accepted it at face value. After the rented carriage had left the house, he had asked Rod about the job. Rod hadn’t seemed surprised that Kenny had suddenly left, but he had no knowledge of any job. Uri desperately racked his brain for any clues as to Kenny’s final destination and had raced to town on horseback to find any hint of him. Still, Kenny had said he would return within the week, and he had chosen to trust those words.

When he hadn’t returned by the second week, Uri had begun to wonder if something had happened to Kenny. He had begged Rod to send out his own men to find him, but Rod had refused, insisting that Kenny was okay and would return. Still, the coldness in Rod’s eyes had told him otherwise. Rod had known something more than he would tell Uri willingly, but Uri had been too afraid to peer into his mind to know the truth. That night, Uri had shut himself in his room and had refused to come out again until there had been a new development.

By the third week, Uri had imagined how, when Kenny returned, he would never let him out of his sight again. If he had to, he would have built a wall around the estate, trapping his beau within like humanity within the three Goddesses. He swung between needing Kenny to apologize for the rest of eternity and begging Kenny to tell him what he had done to deserve this agony. He counted every day, every hour, every minute, every second of Kenny’s absence and mourned the lost time. Rod had stopped in his attempts to cheer up Uri and had left him to the books he had surrounded himself with.

Two and a half months later, in the middle of a downpour, Kenny returned. On this particular night, when the skies had opened up and drowned the earth in tears, Uri had settled on the chaise longue with a book and a glass more than adequately filled with whiskey. Upon hearing the footsteps upon the porch of his villa, he thought to imagine the pattering of an assassin’s gait. His mind flickered to Kenny then, wondered how sorry he might be if someone killed him now. He laughed bitterly out loud and gulped down his whiskey. Let them end his misery, he thought. Then, when he heard the turning of the doorknob, he already welcomed a blade to the nape of his neck—anything to break the monotony of crying alone every night. His heart stopped in his chest when he heard the faint warble of his name upon the lips of the man he missed most. Still, it must have been a trick of the mind, and he dismissed the hallucination. Even when the footsteps drew nearer and as the door of his bedroom cracked open, he refused to believe until he saw the mud-slicked visage of his beau before him. Even then, he thought perhaps it was simply a phantom, come to haunt him.

“Uri,” Kenny said from the doorway, soaked in rain, “I’m back.” A bitter, sheepish grin crept across his lips. “I told you I would be, but it turns out that my business took up more time than anticipated.”

Uri gazed at the threshold, where Kenny stood. His heart was somewhere in his throat, choking him. Slowly, he came to the realization that this wasn’t a dream, but he couldn’t move. When he spoke, his voice was cracked and hoarse.

“Yeah… approaching three months now.”

“Yeah, almost. Didn’t you receive my letter?” Kenny sneered, his teeth glinting in the dim light. “Oh, right… of course not. I kept it from you, like you kept Kuchel’s letters from me.”

Uri had the mind to read Kenny the riot act, to tell him to go back to wherever he had hidden from him. Instead, his vision flooded with tears, and with a sniffle, he set aside his book and whiskey before reaching out to the man he loved most.

“Kenny, come here,” he said. “I missed you so much…”

Still, Kenny didn’t budge from the threshold. His glass eyes saw straight through him.

“I went to see Kuchel.”

Uri held his breath. Kenny didn’t have to say it, but he did anyway.

“She was dead before I got there. She must have been dead for some time… Her skin was like paper, stretched over her crumbling bones. In the corner, on the brink of death himself was her child. I think perhaps he may live. I’m not certain yet.” His gaze lowered to the floor. “You knew, didn’t you? You read her letters, knew about her sickness, stood idly by as she wrote to her big brother for help. Of course, you knew.”

“I’m sorry, Kenny.”

“This isn’t just something that can be fixed with _sorry_. If you were really sorry about it, you wouldn’t have done it in the first place. No, everything you did was intentional, planned, _meticulous_. You hoped that without interference, she would die. You got what you wished for.” His shoulders trembled. “When I moved her body from her deathbed, she just broke into pieces. I put her in a small box until I could justify leaving that child alone for a few days. I buried her next to Gramps and our parents. I slipped and fell in that hole with her… and I wished I knew who would bury me with them after my death. Perhaps I should have stayed in that hole, let the rain swallow me up and drown me…”

“Kenny… I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—“

His fiery gaze flickered up to Uri. “Knowing you, you’ll keep my body in a glass box so you could watch me decay. Then again, you’re not going to live that long for me to die first. You’ll leave me before I’m even an old man—and you didn’t ever think to tell me that when you wrote up that goddamn contract. When were you going to tell me? When your brother was chaining you up in that cave??”

Uri’s heart dropped. “I should have known that Rod did this,” he whispered. “He told you about how I’ll die, didn’t he?”

“Don’t you even hear what I’m saying?” Kenny clutched the doorframe, his knees weakening beneath his body. “You… you bastard, you’re not sorry. All you’re thinking about now is how happy you are since I found my sister’s corpse. She’s no longer my problem because she’s gone forever—admit it; that’s all you feel now. You could have helped prevent her death, but you kept me from her… Don’t you feel any regret, any shame at all?”

Uri sucked in a sharp breath. Any joy of seeing Kenny again started to drain away, replaced by anger. “I’m sorry to hear that she is dead, but don’t blame me for this. I had nothing to do with her death. You could have gone to see her months ago, yet you chose to wait until it was far too late. So, if everything is my fault and I’m to blame for the death of your dear little sister, why are you crawling back now? You expect me to welcome you with open arms after blatantly abandoning me?”

As soon as the words had left his mouth, he regretted being so harsh. Nothing he had said was kind, which hurt him more than anything Kenny could have said back to him. Kenny lowered his angry gaze to the mud on his pants and boots. He stuck his hands in his pocket and backed toward the door.

“If you didn’t want me to come back, you could have left a note on the door.”

Uri looked away. Even if it hurt him, his pride wouldn’t allow him to back down. He gripped his glass of whiskey and raised it to his lips.

“Okay,” he muttered. “Did you come back to dissolve our contract? If so, I’ll give you a couple of days’ head start to outrun my brother’s men. I’m sure Rod is ready for the order at any moment. I doubt the Underground is out of his reach…”

“Uri, why are you so fucking heartless?” Kenny’s voice was hardly more than a whisper. Trembling, he stared down at the floor, gray orbs wide with hurt. “I’ve been living through hell, and you won’t even comfort me?” He wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “Fuck, Uri, I just buried the last of my family, and you act like you don’t even care anymore?”

“It’s not that I don’t care—I really do—but right now, there’s absolutely nothing I can do to comfort you, especially when I’m apparently the one at fault.” Uri took a swig of his whiskey, trying not to choke. “If comfort from me is what you want, I’ll provide, of course, because I love you. But you hate me now, so I’m not sure what comfort I can be.”

Kenny had exhausted himself of holding himself together any longer, because just moments later, he was on his hands and knees, groveling at Uri’s feet. The rain that had soaked him was cold, but the tears that dripped off his cheeks were hot. He crumpled against that small, warm body and held himself close to Uri’s legs. “Goddammit,” he sputtered, his shoulders shaking with each forlorn sob. “I missed you a whole lot. You’re right. You’re always right. You didn’t do anything. You didn’t help her, but you also didn’t hurt her—yet here I am, talking at you like you plunged a knife in her belly. Please, Uri, forgive me.”

Uri couldn’t speak without crying. In silence, he reached down and rubbed Kenny’s back, waiting for the sadness to pass. After all, Kenny would only be able to cry for so long. All he wanted was that Kenny would stop hurting, to get better and be okay.

“Kenny, it’ll be okay.” Uri didn’t believe the words when he had said them, but still he said it over and over again. “It’ll be okay…”

“What’s the point of it all?” Kenny buried his face in Uri’s lap. “Humanity… we’re so fucked. Doomed. Why doesn’t this world just fucking perish already? There’s no fucking point to this suffering—oh god.” He succumbed to his tears, although his sobbing became quieter and calmer the longer Uri held him.

“Don’t think about that.” Uri slipped into the floor beside Kenny, straddling the taller man’s lap and framing his face with his hands. He didn’t care if the mud stained his nice robe. “Just think about right now… the feeling of my body against yours. All isn’t lost. I’m still here. You’re not alone.”

Kenny held his sobs in for a moment before they completely dissipated in his chest. His body relaxed against the warmth of his beau. After all, Uri was all that really mattered to him… His tears dried on his cheeks, and he pressed his body tighter against Uri. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back sooner,” he whispered.

“It’s okay, Kenny. I’m sorry that I caused all of this by keeping away your sister’s letters… I just didn’t want you to hurt, and I didn’t want you to go.” Uri’s arms tightened around Kenny as the trembling subsided. He placed a gentle kiss on Kenny’s cheek. “I’m sorry about everything… I’m sorry that I doubted that you’d come back at all. I should have known that you would.”

“I told you before,” he muttered. “Insecurity doesn’t suit you. I just want to stay with you forever… at least until you die.”

“Please… please stay forever.”

“I will. I promise.”

The night was more or less a blur. At one point, Uri managed to get Kenny to change out of his cold, wet clothes and into a fresh set of bedclothes before tucking him in bed beside him. In the darkness, his arms wrapped tightly around Kenny, and his face pressed firmly against his chest—the Ackerman’s return still seemed to be only a dream. Once Kenny had seemingly fallen asleep, finally he cried his own tears until blackness took over him.

Even when he awoke the next morning, Uri expected Kenny to be gone or for his return to have been a hallucination, brought on by his maddening loneliness. Yet when he rolled on his side, that beautiful creature lay still beside him. He studied the way the slivers of morning sunlight fell across his chest, rising gently with each breath. Without realizing it, his hand dragged across the lines of his muscles and the little trail of hair from his belly button to the waistband of his pants. The touch roused Kenny from sleep.

“Uri…” Kenny breathed his name out with a yawn. “D-don’t be lewd so early in the morning…”

Blood rushed into Uri’s face. “I’m not being lewd,” he muttered. “I’m just admiring your beauty.”

“Tch.” A smirk tugged at his yawning lips. “It’s not like I met you yesterday… It’s not like you to admire something without reaffirming that it’s yours.”

“Oh?” Uri chuckled quietly. His hand brushed against the front of Kenny’s pants, prompting a soft sigh from his lover. “Is that an open invitation?”

“Yes.” Kenny rolled toward Uri. His body was hot against the smaller man. His gray gaze flickered downward. “Let me take care of that morning wood for you…”

“Please do.” Uri pressed his hips flush against Kenny. “It’ll be nice to be taken care of…”

Without any preamble or further ado, Kenny tugged out both of their cocks, still stiff from slumber. As seductively as he could manage, he dragged his tongue along the palm of his hand, coating it in saliva, and wrapped his fingers and palm around both of them, pressed together. Something about being rubbed together with and against Kenny sent a shiver down Uri’s spine unlike any other. Already, his hips trembled and bucked against Kenny’s grip. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of the lewd spectacle, watching with fascination the bubbling of precum on the tips of their cocks and coalescing with the other’s as it rolled down their shafts. As the minutes passed, their bodies steadily became more and more entwined until Uri, thrusting desperately against that grip, was atop of Kenny. Finally, it was too much for either of them, and their chorus of moans filled the room as their cum spurted onto Kenny’s hand and belly. Their cocks pulsed like a second heartbeat when their lips met.

Without giving a single damn about the mess they had made (which was a rare occurrence when Kenny was involved), they collapsed beside each other and slipped once more into a light slumber. When he awoke once more, Uri nudged Kenny from sleep with kisses. Kisses quickly escalated to touches and then to caresses again until they were nothing more than a sticky, breathless mess. They might have slipped into slumber once more if one of the servants hadn’t come to check on the master of the house. Uri requested the servant to bring their breakfast to bed, where he hoped they would stay until afternoon.

By midmorning, however, Kenny squirmed with wakefulness. Uri called for his servant to draw them a hot bath, and for a long time they soaked together in the rose-scented water. Still, Kenny seemed restless. After they drained the water and dried off with fluffy towels, Uri figured he would have to ask.

“Kenny, do you plan on returning to the Underground?” he asked as he tied the sash of his silk robe.

With his towel wrapped around his waist, Kenny glanced back curiously at him. “I do,” he said. “It’s not like I’ll stay there forever, but I need to make sure that kid can fend for himself.”

Uri could hardly believe he said it, but it escaped his lips regardless. “Just bring your sister’s child here. We can raise him, right?”

Kenny avoided looking back at Uri. “No, I wouldn’t do that to him. It’s best that he remain there, where he can be free from the curse of his name.”

“He doesn’t know that he’s an Ackerman?”

“No. No one else knows it either. Only I know what he is.”

Kenny stepped into the bedroom and rifled through the closet for clothes. From the doorway, Uri watched him as he dressed himself. He felt a bit ill to his stomach, but he wasn’t quite sure why.

“It’s not like the Ackermans are in any danger now,” he muttered. “I’d really like to meet your nephew. Maybe I could go with you to the Underground—“

“Absolutely not.” Kenny tucked the tail of his shirt into his slacks. “It’s best if he never knows you. It would only complicate things.”

“Well, why not?” Uri wasn’t certain why Kenny’s decision to keep his nephew away hurt him. “What is it going to complicate?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“I don’t understand because you’re not telling me.” Uri sucked in a deep breath. “Did something happen—“

“It’s nothing.” Kenny’s lips pressed into a tight line. “Let’s keep it that way, okay?”

Uri knew it was pointless to argue with Kenny. All he could hope was that eventually the Ackerman would open up on his own. After all, he didn’t want to push him away so soon after he had returned. Faking a smile, he nodded.

“Okay, Kenny. Then it’s nothing.”

“I’m sorry that I have to leave so soon.” Kenny picked up the trench coat that he had lain on the bed. “I really shouldn’t be gone for so long, but that child still has a lot to learn about the world. I swear that once I’m certain he can take care of himself that I’ll be back permanently, okay?”

“You know,” Uri murmured, leaning against the doorframe, “I had so much in mind for when you finally returned. If you plan on leaving so soon, then we really don’t have time to do all that I wanted.”

“Oh?” Kenny had already put on his trench coat, but he idly slid it off his shoulders. The smirk on his lips stirred Uri’s loins. “What—something classically romantic? Dinner of duck I hunted early in the morning? Watching sunrise or sunset from your favorite perch by the river on the other side of the property? But, knowing you, if you could only choose one way to tie up my day, you would just tie me up, right?”

“You would think you were the mind reader.” Uri crossed over to his beau and tugged on his shirt, bringing the other man’s lips closer. “You know me too well. But if you would prefer any of those other classically romantic options—“

“Tch, idiot.” Kenny leaned down, his warm lips brushing against Uri’s mouth. “You’re not supposed to be the coy one. So tell me how you want me.”

“How I want you? Well…” Uri grasped Kenny’s face, his thumbs resting on those razor-sharp cheekbones. “I want you, suspended, ass in the air, your chest heaving against the ropes crisscrossing it, your hips bucking and desperate for me to fuck you and to give you sweet relief, over and over again…”

“You sound like you’ve had a few nights to think about it.”

“You could call it a fixation.”

“I’d call you crazy, but you’d be crazy not to be so fixated upon me.” By now, Kenny’s trench coat had fallen to the floor in a heap. “If you’re gonna do it, then get to it, Lord Reiss. I don’t have all damn day.”

Uri’s imagination, mapping out how he wanted the encounter to go, was even faster than his fingers, tearing the clothes off his lover’s body. Only the basement had proper anchors for full-body suspension, but the baldachin over the bed seemed strong enough to support Kenny’s weight. He pushed Kenny onto the bed and with a smirk crossed over to the trunk on the other side of the bedroom.

“Lie down and wait patiently for me.”

Kenny could obey most orders, but patience wasn’t currently his strong suit. As Uri busied himself with sifting through different lengths and colors of rope, Kenny nudged the duvet cover until it could be loosely defined as straightened. He wasn’t certain why he bothered; it was going to need a thorough washing by the end of the day. His mind momentarily flickered to the soiled sheets of his sister’s deathbed and how similar his deathbed would be without Uri. His solemn reverie shattered when Uri sat down on the edge of the bed.

“I think you’ll look good in red,” he purred, holding a bundle of rope the color of rose petals and excessively teased cocks next to Kenny’s porcelain skin. He hummed contently. “Perfect. Cross your arms over your head, and squeeze your legs together and put them out straight.”

Once Kenny was in the proper position, Uri bound his forearms together, one over the other, using elaborate, decorative knots, so that Kenny’s elbows were at ninety-degree angles. He braided the two ends of the rope together behind Kenny’s head and neck before knotting it to another longer rope that he used to truss Kenny’s chest and all the way down to his feet. Down the center of his body, Uri tied knots in strategic points before rolling Kenny over and threading the ropes through once more from the backside to create a diamond-shaped pattern down his front and back. Just the sensation of silk rope against his flesh made him squirm, the tightening of ropes not at all claustrophobic and instead more like a gentle embrace. By the time Uri had finished the harness and rolled him face-up once more, Kenny was already a sighing, blushing mess. Smirking, Uri dragged his fingertip where the precum already dripped down Kenny’s cock.

“Are you really so aroused by just being bound?” he asked. His finger teased the knot against the base of the erection. “I suppose you can’t help it, though. You are Lord Reiss’s little slut, after all.”

“Yes, always,” Kenny muttered under his breath, struggling to raise his hips to meet Uri’s touch.

Uri hummed his amusement before rising from the edge of the bed and returning to the trunk once more. He returned with four lengths of chain, each end attached to a differently sized leather cuff. The ends he secured to different points of Kenny’s body—his crossed forearms, his waist, the place right above his knees, and his ankles—and the sturdy wooden canopy over the bed so that while his head and waist were barely suspended over the mattress, his bent knees were higher in the air. Uri tested the security of the bonds by swinging Kenny gently. No matter how much he squirmed, he wouldn’t be able to touch the mattress beneath him.

To Kenny, who had spent over two months trying to figure out what the fuck he was supposed to do with the responsibility of a child suddenly thrust upon him, there wasn’t relief quite like it. Being suspended and made helpless, even just momentarily, allowed him to slip away into mindlessness. Giving up all control to his owner, he parted his lips and sucked in a deep breath.

“Lord Reiss, may I ask a favor?”

“Yes, sweet pet?”

“Please blindfold me.”

“Oh?” Uri grasped Kenny’s chin and leaned down to meet his lips. “Is that something you need right now?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss.”

“Was there anything else you needed?” Uri whispered, nuzzling Kenny’s ear. “Tell me what you would like me to do specifically. I want to please you and satisfy every need you have.”

In spite of the burning in his cheeks, Kenny spoke. “I don’t want to be given that responsibility right now,” he muttered. “I want all decision-making and choice to be taken away. I’ve been so fucking stressed out by having to take action, and I’m exhausted of it.” He exhaled sharply. “Gag me too while you’re at it. I don’t want to be able to interfere at all.”

Uri grimaced slightly. “I was hoping to use that mouth for a bit. Are you certain?”

“Use the gag with the big ring. It’ll work for that.”

When Uri returned from another trip to the trunk, he brought with him a leather blindfold and an open-mouth bit. Before he deprived Kenny of sight and speech, he reviewed the hand signals for if Kenny were uncomfortable (the wag of his extended forefinger) and if Kenny needed to stop the session (the snapping of his fingers). Once the signals were determined, the blindfold and gag were placed, plunging Kenny into darkness and keeping his mouth open. If not for the quiet pad of footsteps upon the floor, he wouldn’t have realized that Uri had left to gather more stuff from his trunk of wonders. The shaking in his legs caused him to swing slightly, lulling him into a state of further relaxation. His mind fought to hold onto thoughts of everything that pained him, but each deep inhale brought him clarity and each deep exhale release. By the time Uri returned to his side, his implements clinking on the bedside table, Kenny dwelled in subspace, all the worries of his mind gone and only focused upon the sensations of his body.

“What a good boy,” Uri whispered into his ear, his hands touching first Kenny’s hands, dragging down his bound arms, brushing across his shoulders and pectorals, and running down his sides. “I’ll take care of you like you want me to. I’m flattered that you give yourself to me like this, and I only want to respect that trust. This is neither a punishment nor discipline, and you’ve done nothing wrong. I will only ever push your body as far as I know you want to go.”

Uri’s words weren’t just random gushing. He knew by the slackness in Kenny’s muscles that he was finally capable of relaxing and of hearing what he had wanted to say all along. Kenny only answered with a ragged exhalation and the slight shuddering of his hips. A well-placed kiss on his chest from Uri forced a shudder up his spine.

“Good boy. Let’s get started.”

Kenny heard the movement of the objects on the nightstand, and anticipation overtook him. Moments later, he felt the cool leather of Uri’s favorite crop upon his ass. His toes curled at just the brushing of light circling movement. When it was suddenly jerked away, he expected a slap, but instead the light circles continued instead. Then, once he had plunged into a further state of relaxation, signaled by the long sigh that rose in his throat, Uri flicked his wrist and brought down the crop in a series of staccato movements, alternating occasionally between the left and right sides of Kenny’s backside.

“Good boy,” Uri repeated as Kenny sighed contently. “I’m going to use my other hand to touch you now.”

Kenny bristled at the warm hand upon his belly now, slowly dragging up to his chest, fingertips running along every curve of his abdominal muscles. His back arched against his restraints, offering up his chest to the hand upon his pectoral. As the lashing upon his ass continued, Uri spread his fingers wide and simultaneously teased both of Kenny’s nipples with the fingertips of his pinky and thumb. Immediately the sensitive flesh hardened and came to life, akin to the stirring of his cock, already hard but getting harder as the minutes passed. After a few moments, Uri focused the pad of his forefinger upon each individual nipple, flicking and circling one before switching to the other. A stifled moan rose up in Kenny’s throat as his hips shuddered.

“That’s a very good boy… Keep just like that. I’m moving my hand away now,” he said right before he lifted it. The shifting of his weight upon the bed indicated his movement toward the nightstand. For a moment that seemed to stretch onward, Kenny waited, his muscles tightening with each second, until he heard the squeaking of the bed. “I’m going to touch your belly.” Something smooth and firm, a square about the size of a thumbnail, brushed against his abdomen. When Kenny heard the clinking of wood, he squirmed. The mystery object dragged up his belly and chest and circled between his nipples, and his hips bucked eagerly. “Don’t squirm so much, pet,” Uri muttered just before Kenny felt a sharp pinch upon his right nipple. _Clothespin,_ he thought with a wince. Another clothespin circled his left nipple before biting down on it, and he recoiled slightly. The movement of his hips swung him gently back and forth.

“Obviously you haven’t been disciplined in a few weeks,” Uri muttered. “You can’t seem to hold still… well, I guess I’ll have to make you behave.” Suddenly, the pins were pulled taut. “I’m connecting these to the trusses on your thighs. If you thrash about, it’s really going to sting. Think you can hold still for ten minutes? If you do, I’ll remove them painlessly.”

Of course, Kenny could hold still. Once, on one job, he had held still in the darkness for four hours until his mark had happened by unawares. His thoughts shattered when Uri snapped the crop hard against his ass. By pure instinct, his thighs jumped, tugging hard on the connected clothespins. He squealed through the bit when the pain shot through his tender nipples. His thighs bounced against each other as endorphins flooded his brain, his mind fighting to focus on keeping his body still. Uri chuckled, sliding his hand atop of Kenny’s balled-up fist.

“That was a bit mean of me maybe,” he muttered. “Squeeze my finger once if you want me to back off the intensity. Squeeze twice if you want me to keep going as I am.”

Kenny didn’t hesitate and squeezed Uri’s forefinger twice. Even with the blindfold on, he could perfectly see the delighted smile upon his lover’s face. Uri tugged his hand away, and for a moment Kenny was left alone to focus upon the stillness of his body. The familiar opening of the jar of lubricant reawakened his hips, causing the pins to tug on his nipples again, the sharp pain making him quiver, starting the cycle all over again. His ragged breath caught in his throat. The creaking of the bed heralded Uri’s return.

“Is my pet getting himself worked up?” he whispered. “If you don’t hold still, those pins are going to pull loose. Now… I’m going to put something inside of you.”

At the cold touch upon his ass, Kenny jumped. From the sharp tug on his nipples, a shockwave rolled down his belly and down to the tip of his cock. Uri hummed his amusement as his free hand gripped the ropes upon Kenny’s hips. Slowly, he forced inside of him a strand of beads, connected together. Kenny tried his best to hold still, only squirming when each bead entered him. Finally, when all of them were inside, Uri tugged on the string gently, and Kenny sucked in a sharp inhale but held his hips.

“Good boy,” he whispered. “Perhaps I should reward you by letting you have my cock in your mouth. It’s so eager to be used…”

Just a moment later, Uri straddled Kenny’s face so that he faced Kenny’s hips. The metal ring that propped Kenny’s mouth open had a large enough opening for Uri to fit within comfortably. Upon his tongue Kenny felt the heat of Uri’s erection just prior to it filling his mouth. Without realizing it, he raised his head to take in the length all the way to the back of his tongue. Already, his mind buzzed with endorphins—it was good to please Lord Reiss, he thought to himself when he tasted the precum. When Uri’s quiet moaning reached his ears, his spine shuddered, his bucking hips raised as an offering.

“Good boy…” Uri’s weight shifted forward a bit, forcing his cock just a bit deeper into Kenny’s mouth. “Keep doing that while I play with you…”

Kenny stiffened, awaiting Uri’s touch. Upon feeling the soft graze of fingertips on the backs of his thighs, he couldn’t help but shake. The touch of the warm tongue upon the tip of his cock forced another shudder, the clothespins upon his nipples pulling tighter against his flesh. As Uri wrapped his lips around the head and pulled the shaft into his mouth, his fingers tugged at the string of beads in Kenny’s ass. Each time his entrance stretched to accommodate the roundness of a bead and swallowed it again as it was pushed in and pulled out, he only thought more and more how nice it would be when he would finally be fucked by his owner and given the sweet relief he craved more and more with each passing moment. Uri knew by the frenetic thrusting of his hips, but still he only bobbed his head up and down, his tongue gliding along the length. Kenny was already damn close, but each time he was too close, Uri would pull him out of his mouth but continue teasing with the beads. Kenny’s moans, although stifled by the cock in his mouth, grew in intensity until they filled the room. Upon pulling back the third time, Uri chuckled quietly.

“What a good boy,” he whispered. “I think I may be kind enough to let you go ahead and cum before I fuck you. Besides, you taste so good…”

Without further ado, Uri pulled Kenny’s erection back into his mouth. When, ready to blow with just one last firm suck, it thundered on his tongue, however, he pulled back. By instinct, Kenny thrust his hips hard, and the force of his movement finally jerked the clothespins free from his nipples. As soon as he heard the snapping of the pins, Uri sucked hard, granting Kenny the release he sought. The sudden flood of endorphins in response to the pain only intensified his orgasm, his hips bucking as his hot cum spurted onto Uri’s tongue. Breathlessly he panted against Uri’s cock, still hard on his own tongue. For a long moment, Uri stayed put, swirling the cum on his tongue, until finally he swallowed it and pulled back.

“Very good boy, cumming for your owner,” he whispered. He rose up on his knees, removing himself from Kenny’s mouth. “Now, I’m going to reposition you a bit to better accommodate my fucking you.”

Kenny gulped for air when Uri moved away from him. Yes, it would be good to be fucked, to be filled, to no longer be empty within. Even after the wave of ecstasy ebbed away, he swung gently, contently, at the ends of the chains. How nice it would be when he could return permanently to this surrender. Formerly the weight of forever might have scared him, but here in this space it didn’t seem so bad. _Forever_. The thought repeated through his mind, echoing until it was all he could imagine. Forever… _forever_ … or until Uri died, chained up in darkness. His mind scrambled to erase the thought. The tugging of the chain, connected to the cuff on his ankles, broke his reverie.

“I’m moving you now,” Uri said. “If it feels uncomfortable, move your fingers, or if you can’t breathe, snap your fingers.”

Uri grunted as he hoisted the chain high in the air, and Kenny shifted so his feet were higher above his hips but the rest of his body remained the same. The position change didn’t make him seem as weightless, and it was a bit more difficult to breathe, and the gag was now uncomfortable. He wagged his fingers to regain Uri’s attention.

“Do you need to be let down?”

He shook his head.

“Remove the gag?”

He nodded. Uri kneeled down beside him, reaching behind his head, and unbuckled the gag. Even though he didn’t ask for him to do it, he also removed the blindfold. He squinted when light hurt his eyes. Uri leaned down and kissed him.

“You’ve been so good,” he whispered. “Hold on for just a bit longer.”

As his eyes readjusted to the light, Kenny watched Uri, rising to his feet to stand on the mattress beside Kenny’s legs. With one hand, he tugged at the chain and tested its security, and with the other he felt the cuff about Kenny’s ankles.

“You can feel your feet?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

A smirk played on Uri’s lips, and he kissed the soles of Kenny’s feet. The soft graze of wet lips upon his toes prompted a ragged gasp.

“N-no,” he murmured, struggling. “You know I don’t like that…”

“It’s too bad that you dislike having your feet kissed.” With a sigh, Uri sank down to his knees. “Oh well. Now… there is a bit of unfinished business at hand.”

Kenny didn’t mean to squirm so much when Uri gripped tight on his waist and tugged on the string of beads. Slowly, one by one, each bead popped out, his nerves lighting up with delight. Already his cock started to swell again as his hips shook with anticipation. Once the beads were out, Uri set them aside on a towel on the bed and picked up the jar of lubricant nearby. With forefinger and middle finger slick with lube, he turned once more to Kenny.

“Hold still, sweet pet,” he said. “I need to prepare you before I fuck you.”

Easily, those slender fingers slipped inside. Still, Kenny felt empty—that space could only be filled by Uri’s cock. Even so, when the pads of his fingertips felt around inside of him, his toes curled and a moan escaped his lips. Uri hummed quietly.

“Don’t be so shy with that voice,” he whispered. “Where is that little sweet spot that my pet loves so much?”

Uri’s fingers wiggled back and forth aimlessly, making scissoring motions. Kenny knew that he intentionally missed the spot, desperate now to be touched, but he could do nothing more than squirm. His cheeks wafted with heat when he opened his mouth to speak.

“Please just touch it…”

“Oh?” Uri wrapped his free arm around Kenny’s thighs and peered around. He placed his fingertips just off of the spot where he needed attention. “If only I could find it, then I would.”

“N-no…” Kenny struggled a bit against his binds. His hips bucked against Uri’s hand. “Pl-please…”

Uri curled his lips into a devious smile. “Oh, I see.” The pads of his fingers finally moved to the correct position. When Kenny shouted out, he chortled. “There’s that sweet spot… The spot that makes my sweet pet cum so easily whenever it’s touched. Good boy. I’m going to take my fingers out now, but my cock should satisfy your need.”

A soft cry rose up in Kenny’s throat when Uri removed his fingers. After wiping his hand off on the towel, the creaking of the jar lid signaled Uri’s intent. Kenny swung gently to and fro, propelled by the bouncing of his thighs, but then Uri stilled Kenny’s movement with a firm grip on the rope harness. The brush of the head of Uri’s cock, slathered in cold lubricant, against his entrance only served to make him more restless. Uri kissed the back of Kenny’s thigh.

“Do you really need my cock so badly? You already came once. Certainly you’re satisfied.”

“Please fuck me,” Kenny begged. Uri’s grip upon the rope prevented him from thrusting his hips or moving at all, but he didn’t quit trying. “Nothing at all is like your cock inside of me…”

“Oh, did you try to find a replacement during your time away from home?”

Kenny puffed up his cheeks and looked away. “Maybe.”

“Heh. What sort of things did you try?”

“L-Lord Reiss, don’t you want to just fuck me now?”

“I’ve waited this long. I can wait a bit longer. Tell me what you used on yourself…” Uri reached around and stroked Kenny’s renewed erection. “I want to know.”

“Fingers,” Kenny muttered. “It’s not like I tried sticking everything I found in the Underground up my ass…” He pressed his shoulders back and arched his spine, mewling quietly under his breath. “Can you please just fuck me already?”

“Heh. You’re lucky I love to spoil you, sweet pet.”

Kenny couldn’t think of a comeback before Uri thrust his hips hard and buried his cock deep inside of him. For a moment, Uri didn’t move, sucking in a deep breath, his hand upon Kenny’s cock tightening. His blue eyes flickered to meet Kenny’s wide-eyed gaze, and with a smirk he pulled back his hips, making space between them. Kenny groaned and squirmed and fought against his ties, desperate to be filled completely.

“I want to hear your voice now,” Uri said breathlessly. “It’s been too long since I heard those sounds that keep me up at night.”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss.”

“Good boy.”

Without further ado, Uri rocked his hips, pushing in and pulling out of Kenny over and over again, while his hand pumped Kenny’s shaft to the same rhythm. For just a moment, Kenny mused on the satisfaction of that cock inside of him—not so small as to leave him feeling cheated, but not so large as to make him uncomfortable. He arched his back against the ropes, opening himself more to Uri’s movement. Kenny whimpered when the spot inside of him lit up, his vision going white with each pass over it.

“Please, fuck me harder,” he begged.

“Harder? Heh… okay.”

Kenny knew by the blotchiness upon Uri’s face and chest that he was just barely clinging to that edge. Still, Uri slammed those hips against Kenny’s, the loud smacking of flesh filling the room along with their moans and cries. Each thrust hammered upon Kenny’s prostate, dragging him, kicking and screaming in pleasure, back to that edge right alongside Uri. With each stroke of that hand and that cock, working tirelessly in tandem with the other, the pressure at the base of his spine increased tenfold. By this point, he couldn’t help but flail against the ropes upon him.

“Oh god, I’m gonna cum,” he muttered in the midst of his moans of worship. “Please, god, let me cum.”

“Then cum,” was the breathless reply.

Uri’s words seemed to command Kenny’s body, for all at once the pressure in his hips exploded. Kenny threw back his head, his lips twisting into an O, his cries an ode to ecstasy, and stilled his hips until the force of his orgasm moved them to buck desperately again. Just as his ass clenched down on Uri and his cum shot onto his belly, Uri gasped and threw his body flush to Kenny’s needy hips. A second shockwave, just enough to force a smaller stream of cum from his cock, took Kenny at the sensation of that hot spurt deep inside of him. For a minute or two, they pressed tight to each other, unable to move and gasping for breath.

“Goddammit, that was good,” Uri whispered between gulps of air. “Goddammit.”

“Fucking amen,” Kenny answered, his lips twisted in a grin.

Slowly, Uri shifted his weight and slid out. Before releasing Kenny, he cleaned both of them with washcloths he had prepared prior to the session. Once all the ropes were removed, he draped Kenny’s favorite flannel blanket over his broad shoulders and kissed his cheek. As he allowed Kenny to curl up and rest, Uri threw on his robe once more and fetched Kenny’s favorite snack, iced black tea and sweet cornbread. By the time he returned just ten minutes later, however, Kenny was already up and dressed, and he stared in the mirror as he brushed his dark hair. Uri set down the plate and mug on the table next to the chaise longue.

“You’re leaving already?”

“I’m sorry.” Kenny avoided looking back at him. He couldn’t stand to see the disappointment so evident in those blue eyes. “If I leave now, I can get back to the Underground by the day after tomorrow. I’ve been away from Levi for three days now.”

“Levi—that’s your nephew’s name?” Weakly, Uri sank down onto the chaise longue. “What’s he like?”

Kenny frowned as he stepped into his muddy shoes by the foot of the bed. “He’s a tough little monster,” he said. “He doesn’t talk a lot. He likes playing with knives. He cries sometimes, sleeps other times. I’m afraid he’s attached to me, but I’m going to slowly wean him off of needing me around.”

“So you’re just going to leave him?”

“That’s the plan.” Kenny stepped over, but instead of looking back at Uri, he grabbed the cornbread off the plate. “It’s not like he should be alive anyway. No one should know about him. Please don’t tell your brother.” Even mentioning Rod indirectly left a sour taste in his mouth. He shuddered at the very flickering of the memory of that time in the cave. “Then when it’s all over, I’ll be back. Forever.”

Uri couldn’t help but burst into tears. “I’m sorry I’m so selfish,” he cried, wiping at his suddenly wet cheeks. “Because of me, that child lost his mother, and because of me, he’ll lose you.”

Kenny wanted to tell him that it was fine, that it wasn’t true, that Uri hadn’t done a damn thing wrong in this doomed world, but instead he turned on his heels and walked to the door.

“It is what it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I haven't been posting on tumblr lately but you can find me on Instagram at @caitybelleackeryandere where you can see all the cosplay stuff I've been doing lately. The other day I did a Q&A as Kenny and I hope to do more stuff like that in the future~
> 
> Also if you haven't already, you should go check out the Uriken cosplay pictures that I did with my fiancee. I still have a bunch to post, and we'll probably do requests as both Uriken and Eruri during her next visit.


	11. Euthyphro Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uri travels to the Capital to oversee the selling of indulgences at the Church.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" -Socrates on the Euthyphro Dilemma
> 
> I finally got my fiancee's engagement ring back from being resized. I don't see her until MTAC. But now it fits on my pinky and it's soooooo cute~ Headcanon that if Uriken had wedding bands, Uri's band would only fit on Kenny's pinky.
> 
> Last weekend, she and I didn't have a chance to do any more Uriken photos, but we did a really cool photo series of Officer Erwin x convict Levi. Our video of me shoving her against the wall and handcuffing her was super popular for a day. We also did some pictures and videos of Kenny and Levi. People seemed to have thought those were super funny because apparently I'm hilarious when I'm not hurting your feelings. :^) Btw, all this stuff is on Instagram @caitybelleackeryandere in case you still don't follow me.
> 
> Okay okay I'll shut up and let you read the chapter now.

Uri had cried when Kenny had left again, but his crying had never stopped Kenny from ever doing what he had set his mind to accomplish. Still, hoping against hope that maybe he would have changed his mind, Uri had wrapped himself in the blanket Kenny had left on the bed, still heavy with the scent of his arousal, and had screamed and had sobbed until his voice had left him. Then, after finally one of his servants had come to check on him to make certain he was fine, Uri had sat on his chaise longue, had poured a shot of whiskey into his hot black tea, and had wondered how he could have possibly kept Kenny from leaving. Ultimately he had realized it would be impossible to imprison someone and to preserve his good feelings toward him. Upon that conclusion, he had accepted Kenny’s departure but had hoped for a swift return.

When a week had passed and Kenny had yet to return again, Uri decided to resume his work as usual. That same day, he received correspondence from the Church, reminding him to come to the Capital for his promised yearly visit. Each year, the Church, always in dire need of funds, participated in the selling of indulgences, earthly forgiveness of sins, to the Capital’s royals and merchants. Uri figured it would be a nice change of pace from his current reclusive routine, packed a bag, and called for his carriage. Rod would have argued with him about going alone, so Uri neglected to tell his brother about his excursion beforehand and left a written message with Rod’s valet. By the time Rod actually read the note, Uri was halfway to his destination.

By the next evening, Uri arrived at his townhouse a few blocks away from the Capital’s red light district, not too far from the underground bar at which he had first encountered Kenny. Normally, he would have paid a visit to that nightclub beneath Hotel Franz, but something about him had changed since that last trip to the Capital with his brother to sell indulgences at the Church. Instead, he had a quiet dinner alone while his staff, which had traveled ahead of him, finished preparing the townhouse for his visit.

The next morning, Uri, dressed all in white, appeared at the Church. His talk of righteousness and piety to the congregation was just that—talk. Once, ten years ago, before he knew the pleasures of the flesh and the damnation of humanity, he might have actually spoken from the heart, as he believed his father had spoken when the senior Lord Reiss had taken to the pulpit to stress the need of goodness. Just prior to their father’s death, Rod had told Uri that he would have been a much better fit for the one to hold all of humanity’s knowledge (“I’m not good like you,” Rod had said. “I could never inspire the people like you ever could.”), but now Uri thought that perhaps it was Rod’s way of slowly manipulating events to suit his agenda. As he emphasized the importance of humility, Uri thought to later when people would exchange money with the priests and then come to him to hear the words, “You are pardoned of your sin.” Then they would get in their expensive carriages and meet at secret clubs with their illicit paramours and carry on with their lives.

Late that evening, after the twilight service and after pretending to forgive the other royals and merchants of their sins against humanity in exchange for varying sums depending on the gravity of their misdeeds, alone in the now abandoned church, Uri kneeled before the altar, staring at the flames of dozens of candlesticks with black eyes. Years ago, after the first time he sold indulgences, he had cried for days after realizing the futility of his words, preaching virtue and kindness. The second year, he had only cried for an hour. By the eighth year, still wearing all white, he had gone immediately from the church to the basement of the Hotel Franz. He bristled at the thought of that night. Had he really known Kenny for two years now? Perhaps having in his life someone who made him want to be kind again prevented him from returning to that bar for temporary companionship. When he heard the creaking of the heavy wooden door at the entrance of the sanctuary, Uri shook off his reverie.

“I’ll be out shortly, Pastor,” Uri called back, his eyes never leaving the flames of the candles. “Just a few more minutes, please.”

“I’m not here to rush you. I came for forgiveness.”

At the sound of the familiar voice, Uri stumbled upright to his feet and spun around. The darkness on the far end of the sanctuary clung to those broad shoulders he knew so well. He sucked in a sharp breath as Kenny, silhouetted in shadows, stepped forward. Uri wondered what might have happened if instead Kenny had endeavored to assassinate him in the church instead of waiting to seduce him at the nightclub. Perhaps he might have been more successful, he thought with a grimace. He shook the thought from his mind.

“Kenny… why are you here?” he croaked.

“Did you not want to see me?” At that moment, Kenny, dressed in his fedora and long trench coat, stepped into the dim light. “I can leave, but I did pay the priest to receive my indulgence. You owe me that much at least.”

“You left so suddenly.” Uri stared down at his hands. Already, he felt the tightness in his throat and the tears in his eyes. “You left without saying you loved me.”

“I know.” Kenny didn’t hesitate as he continued to approach the altar. “I left without saying many things that I wanted to say. That’s what I wanted forgiveness for. You’re gonna forgive me, right? You’re kind of obligated to.”

Uri looked up, hating that his cheeks were already streaked with tears. “You wasted your damn money,” he retorted. “I already forgave you.”

“Is that so?” Kenny stopped just two paces short of Uri. He stuck his hands in his pocket and stared down at him with cold gray eyes. “I suppose there are other things I could be forgiven for.”

“It’s pointless.” Uri pressed his cheek to his shoulder, a futile effort to dry his tears. “There’s nothing that I haven’t forgiven you for.”

Kenny bowed his head, the brim of his hat hiding those honest eyes. “Oh? I haven’t done anything worthy of your kindness lately. If you’ve already forgiven me of my sins against you, then let me confess the sins against others. See if you can bear to forgive me for that.”

“Go on. I’m listening.”

“Forgive me for turning my sister’s surviving child into a monster,” he muttered. His shoulders bowed. “You were right about me. I’m no good at being a parent. I taught him how to survive, but I forgot to teach him kindness. I’m trying to rectify that mistake, but…”

“You’re talking about Levi, right?”

Kenny curled his lip. “You remembered Little Monster’s name.”

“Maybe if you didn’t refer to him as a monster, he wouldn’t be so bad.”

“I refer to you as a monster, but you’re perfectly fine.”

_Monster_. Uri touched his chest, suddenly tight, and spun around on his heels to face the altar once more. His voice cracked when he stuttered the words.

“After all this time, I’m still a monster to you.”

“Tch, that’s not the point.” Kenny didn’t move, only stared at the floor directly in front of him. “I was talking about Levi, not you. Besides, you were already that way before I got to you, so you can’t blame me for that at the very least.”

“Goddammit, Kenny…”

“You shouldn’t talk like that in a church, you know.”

“Goddammit, Kenny!” Uri wiped his face on his sleeve. “Really, why did you come here? Did you just come to insult me? To upset me? To make me cry all over again when I thought I was fucking done crying?”

“I didn’t mean to insult you, Uri. That came out wrong. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t call Levi a monster, either. I’m just really fucking terrible, and I don’t deserve forgiveness.” Kenny sighed. “You’re right. You’re always right. I wasted my fucking money. I deserve every terrible thing that has happened to me. I am worthy only of your disdain and disgust.”

Uri wanted to tell him that he forgave him after all, but by the time his voice returned to him, Kenny had already turned away and had left the sanctuary without another word. When he registered the sound of the door, shutting behind his lover, Uri spun on his heels and ran after him. Outside the church, the rain poured down upon him, alone in the middle of the street. Kenny was nowhere in sight. Upon reentering the church, the clergy assumed that the tears he shed were from the weight of the sins of others upon him.

Uri had been inconsolable that night, but the next morning, he again donned his white clothes and returned to the church. Like the day before, he repeated the same words of humility and kindness before sanctifying nobles who had paid for the privilege. He hoped against hope that the next face would be Kenny’s, the next sins would belong to his beau, but the day passed without another appearance of the one he needed most. That night, he managed to hold back from crying until he returned to his townhouse.

In spite of his newly developed fever, perhaps from the draftiness of the townhouse after all the rain, Uri managed to return to the church for a third day. The clergy worried over him, but he continued his work as usual. After he had given up hope of seeing him again during his time in the Capital, Uri saw Kenny in the line of people who had bought indulgences. When Uri collapsed, the clergy blamed it on his fever, carried him off to the inner sanctum, where he could rest on a cot in the sacred space, and sent away the congregation. Uri wondered if he had disappointed Kenny by avoiding him. Luckily, the fever broke later that evening, but the clergy sent Uri back to his townhouse for the night instead of asking him to stay for the twilight service.

The next morning, Uri left once more for the church on his final day of pardoning sins. His staff had insisted that he leave early instead of staying until the twilight service, but he secretly hoped to see Kenny at least in passing one more time before going home. The most people always arrived on that final day, having put off paying off their sins until the last minute. The morning dragged on—after each person’s confession, he had to return to the inner sanctum, mutter some words in that “holy space” about how he or she was forgiven, and return to the altar to do the very same thing over and over again.

Luckily, the coordinate had stayed quiet during his entire trip, but his luck soon ran out when, according to his routine, he anointed a man’s forehead. Suddenly he could only see the destroyed landscape around him, the sinister, twisted form of that fabled strongest Titan approaching him, its cries of “I’ve come for the power of the coordinate!” the only thing he could hear now. His vision went to black, but still he heard that Titan’s voice. Next thing he knew, he was on the floor of the sanctuary, screaming, crying, clawing at his eyes, begging for Judgment Day to be postponed just one more day. The clergy cleared the room and left him alone to suffer. They knew all too well, after serving generations of the Reiss family, that there was nothing they could do to calm him down.

Forever—or at least, it felt like forever—he lay on the floor beside the altar, screaming. Then, like a savior, the gentle caress upon his cheek dispelled his visions of doom and thoughts of damnation. The darkness lifted from his eyes, and there was Kenny, kneeling beside him, wiping his cheeks with his thumbs. A feeble smile touched Kenny’s lips.

“Come back, my most precious monster,” he whispered. “I already paid for a fucking indulgence, and I’m not leaving without your forgiveness.”

The Church was a construct of humanity—Uri’s forgiveness was but a courtesy, a hope he offered to make death seem more painless. The walls were not goddesses but just three structures formed from the bodies of dormant Titans. There was nothing out there but damnation—even if Uri had been a god, he was helpless to help when the apocalypse came to claim reparations for humanity’s sins. Still, if the heavens ever had spoken, Kenny had unknowingly been its mouthpiece in that moment.

“Kenny… how did you get in here?”

“If I revealed all my secrets, there wouldn’t be a point to you being unable to read my mind.” Kenny pulled his hand back, but Uri, seeming to follow it, sat up and came close to him. “So are you gonna give me your forgiveness today?”

“Are you going to leave if I say yes?”

“I could say I won’t, but you already know that’s a lie.”

With a sigh, Uri stumbled to his feet, clutching onto the altar for support. His knees wobbled.

“Then I’m not going to forgive you just this second. What’s the point of coming here anyway? It’s not like you believe in this.”

“I don’t believe you can forgive all of humanity’s sins, no. You don’t actually care about them. You’re just providing some semblance of hope for whatever reason. But… I care about how you feel toward me. You may not be able to absolve the sins of my soul, but you can absolve the sins I have committed against you.”

“I told you already. I forgave you in the past.” Uri looked away. “And you’re right. I am a monster. I’ve always been a monster. I guess the truth just hurts, you know? But you really shouldn’t call your nephew that.”

“I know. I don’t know why I do it. Levi deserves better than me. I guess that’s why I’ll end up leaving him in the end.”

Uri bowed his head and closed his eyes. “Then go be with him while you can,” he muttered, “even if that means leaving me in the meantime.”

“Don’t pretend you would be okay if I left just this second.” Kenny, still on his knees, moved toward Uri. Color rose upon his cheeks. “You know, you were wearing all white like this when I first saw you.”

Uri blushed and looked away. “What about it?”

Smirking, Kenny pressed himself to Uri’s legs, his hands skimming his thighs and hips. Uri should have stopped him (he was in a church, after all), but instead he tightened his grip upon the altar and watched with wide eyes as his beau kissed his belly right above the waistline of his pants. With his teeth, Kenny unfastened Uri’s belt and unbuttoned his fly. Those gray eyes flickered upward momentarily.

“Allow me to beg for your forgiveness in the only way I know how.”

“Kenny, this is a church…!”

“Heh, I know. It’s forbidden for a saint like you to be sucked off by a blatant sinner like me.” His nose nudged at the growing bulge before his eyes. “If you want me to stop, then you should say that you forgive me, and I’ll leave immediately—but you don’t want me to stop, do you?”

Uri should have stopped him, having been given an out. Still, he couldn’t deny the shudder down his spine, the warmth of his belly, the rush of blood downward, leaving him dizzy and euphoric. Kenny used his teeth to tug down Uri’s underwear, freeing his already hard and dripping cock from its cloth prison. With a simper upon his lips, he kissed the root, covered in fine, sparse cornsilk, before trailing his kisses up the underside. Uri would have to make Kenny pay for doing this to him, making his hips quiver and his knees shake.

Hovering at the head, Kenny kissed the tip gently, coating his lips in precum, before tugging the length into his velvet orifice. At the prompting of that heat upon his cock, Uri sucked in a sharp breath and exhaled a shaky cry. Easily Kenny took him to the back of his mouth, just short of his throat, and bobbed his head up and down the length. Uri propped one elbow upon the altar as his other hand entwined its fingers in Kenny’s dark trusses. Already his forehead was slick with sweat, his cornsilk hair sticking to his face. His cheeks swelled with heat.

“Fuck,” he gasped. “Slow down… I’m going to cum if you keep doing that.”

Kenny responded with a guttural chuckle but didn’t slow down at all. Over and over, he bobbed his head up and down, his tongue gliding down the underside, his hands clutching Uri’s bucking hips. Uri’s heart beat nearly out of his chest, both from the anxiety of someone possibly walking in on them and from the overwhelming pressure at the base of his spine. His breath hitching in his throat, his grip upon Kenny’s hair tightening, he hunched over the altar and thrust in spite of Kenny’s attempts to hold him still. He clamped a hand over his mouth just as ecstasy took him, his cries but whimpers against his palm. Kenny swirled the hot cum in his mouth for just a moment before swallowing it, and he released Uri’s hips from his vice grip.

“Do I have your forgiveness now?” he whispered.

Uri tugged hard on Kenny’s hair. “For being so blatantly sinful in this sacred place? I shouldn’t forgive you so easily… Stand up. Come.”

Kenny staggered to his feet, bowing when Uri’s grip didn’t release his hair. “Where do you want to go?”

Without saying another word, Uri pulled Kenny to the back of the pulpit and toward the heavy velvet curtain that separated the sanctuary from the inner sanctum, where the church’s most sacred artifacts were stored in cabinets that lined the small room, lit by the mysterious glowing stones set in the walls. In the center of the room was a large golden statue of the three goddesses—Maria, Rose, and Sina—surrounding the patriarch of the Reiss family, Uri’s great-grandfather. Before the idol was an offering table, upon which was the Church’s Holy Bible and a dish of burning incense. Uri shoved aside the articles on the table and pressed Kenny against the edge.

“While I am here, selling indulgences, no one is allowed into the inner sanctum without my express permission,” he said. “I could keep you here as long as I like, and no one would ever know the difference.”

Kenny visibly shuddered. His lips curled into a nervous smile. “Isn’t that sacrilegious?” he asked. “Wouldn’t your ancestors be shocked if you fucked me in their sacred space?”

“My ancestors? Those lewd bastards did far worse.” Uri unbuttoned Kenny’s shirt and pants with deft fingers. “My successors, however, might be shocked at first, but we’ll both be long gone from this place before they ever know what was done here. Imagine, after my memories are passed down, they come in here and see what I see now and what I’m soon to see, and they can’t help but shudder.” He pushed aside Kenny’s shirt and playfully nipped at his firm pectoral. “Get undressed and get on the table. I’m going to find something to truss you up with.”

As Kenny shed his clothes and neatly folded them, Uri sought out the stoles that he had seen abandoned accidentally in the sanctuary when he had been possessed by the coordinate. Upon his return, he bound Kenny’s arms with his forearms parallel to each other behind his back, and each leg with his thigh and calf pressed together. He stepped back to appreciate his trussed beau upon the offering table and smirked.

“My good boy is going to have to be very quiet,” he whispered, “if he’s not going to be heard.”

Kenny laughed nervously. “It’s not like anyone is out in the sanctuary right now.”

“Oh…? But they will be soon.” Uri sighed. “Now that I’ve recovered my senses, I’m sure the people who are awaiting their indulgences are still waiting outside the sanctuary. After all, they paid for a service.”

“You’re not going to leave me like this, are you?” Kenny stuttered. “You didn’t just tie me up to tell me that, did you?”

“Why are you always surprised by my sadism?” Uri stepped toward the table and trailed his hand up Kenny’s thigh and to his swelling cock. His fingertips dragged down the length before wrapping around the shaft tightly. “It’s like you think I’m kind or something. I have to come back and forth between the sanctuary and inner sanctum with each person, so instead of muttering pointless words and rolling my eyes, I’ll tease you until you’re a drooling, mindless slut.” Uri released Kenny from his grip and backed away toward the velvet curtain. “Now, wait here while I go tell the pastor that I’m ready to see the worshippers again.”

“W-wait! Th-that’s not fair…!”

Before Kenny could protest further, Uri slipped out of the inner sanctum, crossed the sanctuary, and opened the door. The pastor, waiting outside in the atrium, approached him and asked if Uri was okay to continue his sanctification. Uri answered in the affirmative and informed him that he would wait in the inner sanctum until the church could be filled again. As the sanctuary started to buzz again with activity, Uri returned behind the curtain. Kenny squirmed when he heard the sounds of the pipe organ, returning to life.

“Th-this is really lewd,” he muttered.

“Oh? That didn’t stop you from blowing me in the sanctuary.”

Kenny snorted in amusement. “I guess you’re right.”

Uri stepped over to the table and kissed Kenny’s chest. “You’re comfortable? Nothing feels numb?”

“Yeah… I’m good in that department.”

“Well, that’s what’s important.” Uri dragged his lips to a nipple and teased it gently with his tongue, prompting a ragged gasp from Kenny. “You know, each time I return, I’m going to tease you until you’re on the edge, which isn’t going to take long at all. Then I’ll leave you alone to simmer and to cool down, and I’ll return just as you have yourself under control again. If I’m feeling kind, I may let you cum every once in a while.”

Kenny wriggled when Uri wrapped his hand around his cock and pumped it gently. “H-how long does this whole ordeal take…?”

“Oh, I’m here all day until the end of twilight services usually.” Uri chuckled when Kenny’s eyes went wide. “Don’t worry. I’ll only keep you like this until the afternoon, when the clergy takes a break for an early dinner. You can handle it.”

When Kenny started to respond, Uri sucked his nipple into his mouth and pumped his shaft more vigorously while his free hand teased the other nipple. He relished the little suppressed cries and moans and watched the bubbling of precum from the tip of that cock he adored so much. He dragged Kenny, trembling and shuddering, right to the edge, but then he stopped just short of giving Kenny release. Just when he might have came, Uri pulled his hand away and stepped back. Kenny looked back at him with swimming eyes.

“Pl-please don’t leave…”

With a smirk, Uri slipped away behind the velvet curtain and into the sanctuary. There, the pastor met him at the pulpit and directed the first of many people in that long line to confess their sins. Each confession took about two to five minutes each with a minute of downtime to cleanse himself in the inner sanctum between each person. On the last day, the line could stretch onward for a while as the rich citizens remembered that they still needed to get their sins for the year absolved. Normally Uri at this point would have been cursing everyone in his mind as the coordinate droned on in his ear about how unworthy and unfit was humanity, but instead he quickly recited his prayer and anointed each person before rushing back to the inner sanctum. The clergy simply thought that his purpose had been revitalized instead of the lewd secret he kept from them.

Each time he returned to him, Kenny shuddered and offered himself up to Uri’s relentless touch. Uri timed himself as he teased his lover, never staying longer than exactly one minute. One minute was just long enough to bring Kenny to that edge, and his absence was long enough for the pressure to subside. By the time of his fifth visit, Kenny achieved release just before the minute was up, moaning and squirming as his cum spurted into Uri’s hand. Uri hummed his amusement as he wiped his hand with a handkerchief.

“Twenty minutes?” he muttered. “I’m a kind owner to allow you such a fast reprieve. Oh well. I still have three and a half hours of this charade, and then once I’m through until the twilight service, you’re going to ride me. Understood?”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss…”

By the end of that first hour, having allowed Kenny to go over the edge twice, Uri himself was an impatient mess, although he tried his damnedest to not let it show. The time seemed to drag on, but as quickly as he could, he dismissed each person’s sins with but the wave of his hand and a splash of holy water. The clergy openly admired his determination to see to everyone’s sanctification, but this event only intensified his resentment toward humanity. At the end of the third hour, Uri told the pastor to not allow anyone else into the sanctuary, that he would only see those already in line. Still, his task took him the better part of another hour. After the final person was absolved of his sins for the year, Uri requested that the clergy not disturb him while he rested in the inner sanctum. They cheerfully agreed and praised his virtue and piety as he disappeared behind the velvet curtain.

“You’ve been such a good boy,” Uri whispered as he approached the offering table. With a bemused curl to his lip, he thought how much better of an offering was Kenny—slick with sweat, those shapely pectorals upon his puffed-up chest with nipples like rosebuds, his cock hard and dripping with anticipation still—than any gold or incense, prayers or good deeds. “Now it’s time for me to reward you by allowing you to ride me.”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss,” Kenny muttered. A smirk tugged on his twisted lips. “Then you’ll forgive my sins, right?”

“Heh, didn’t I tell you before? I already forgave everything you’ve ever done, you beautiful creature.” Uri unbuttoned his shirt and pushed the fabric away from his faintly muscular chest. “Still… I like it when you beg.”

Kenny simpered, his bound, shaking thighs pressed tightly to each other. “Tch, you lewd bastard… I don’t have to beg. I know you well enough to know how badly you need to fuck me right now.”

Uri felt the heat upon his cheeks. “Oh? Tell me then. How do you know?”

“How do I know? The way your cheeks and chest are blushing, your breath is catching in your throat, your fingers are curled up, your hips start to tremble, your shoulders twitch, and your eyes take in all that belongs to you. Everything about you reads that you can’t hold back any longer, that you suffer just as I do.” Kenny licked his lips. “That’s why I don’t mind so much when you tease me like this, because you’re just teasing yourself as well.”

“Do you always watch me like that?” Uri whispered as he moved toward the table. Those gray eyes caused the warmth in his belly to burn hotter. “Have you really paid that much attention?”

“Of course, I paid attention,” Kenny huffed. He scooted himself so that he faced away from Uri and his ass hung over the edge of the table. He peered over his shoulder, his cheeks red and his lip trembling. “How else am I supposed to think of you when I’m alone at night if I don’t remember how you look when you want nothing more but to fuck me into oblivion?”

Just the thought of Kenny—alone, thinking of him, his eyes half-lidded, his lips twisted into an O, his hand pumping his cock—moved Uri to action. Instantly he was upon him, one hand freeing himself from his pants and his tongue coating the other hand with saliva. After rubbing himself with his spit, he lined himself up with Kenny’s entrance and, gripping his waist tight, threw his weight against Kenny’s back. Without proper lubrication he didn’t slide in as easily as usual, and he had to stand on his tiptoes to reach Kenny. The prompting of Kenny’s breathy moans, however, urged him to continue as he was. He wrapped his arms around Kenny’s waist and held his body flush to Kenny’s back as he thrust.

“Does that feel good?” he gasped.

“Fuck, yes,” Kenny groaned. “Touch me. Oh god, touch me.”

Keeping his arms tightly wrapped around him, for fear that he might fall away, Uri grasped Kenny’s erection and pumped it slightly off rhythm of the movement of his hips. Kenny glanced over his shoulder at him and noticed how he rocked on the tips of his toes.

“Aww, are you too short to reach me properly?” he muttered. “That’s cute.”

Frustrated already with the situation, Uri pulled his knees up onto the table and shoved Kenny forward, pressing him face-first into the golden crotch of his great-grandfather by pure happenstance. He brought his hand down hard on his ass, forgetting momentarily that someone out in the sanctuary might hear through that velvet curtain. Now that he was in a better position, he seized those hips and threw himself as hard as he could into Kenny, their flesh slapping loudly against the other’s. Uri dragged his fingernails down Kenny’s back, leaving ten little welts.

“Goddammit, you’re going to drain me dry,” Uri murmured. “Are you close?”

“No, but it feels good,” Kenny answered. “Go ahead. I still have to ride you. Cum for me, Lord Reiss.”

Uri couldn’t resist the invitation—after all, he had spent the better part of four hours, stroking his lover’s cock, teasing him, and making him cum multiple times. His pulse had thundered for hours, his head dizzy and his belly burning with desire. He sucked in a deep breath just as every muscle in his body tensed. With one last thrust, he threw himself over the edge into ecstasy. Eagerly he filled those warm, inviting insides with sticky cum and held himself flush against that body, his heart ramming into his ribs with wild abandon. Shuddering out of control, he kissed between Kenny’s shoulder blades and moaned.

“Fucking hell,” he coughed.

“Untie me and lay on the table so I can ride you,” Kenny said, his cheek pressed still to the crotch of the golden statue.

“Hnnn, of course. Give me a second…”

Slowly, Uri pulled himself out of Kenny and stood up off the table. After untying Kenny’s arms and allowing him to untie his legs, he washed himself off with the holy water in a nearby basin. Once cleaned up, he returned to the table and as per Kenny’s instructions laid down on his back. Kenny crawled atop of him and leaned down, his lips hovering just out of reach of Uri. His free hand that didn’t support his weight dragged through Uri’s blonde hair, brushing it back from Uri’s round face.

“God, you’re so fucking handsome,” Uri said quietly, touching Kenny’s face and framing it in his hands. “So really… why did you seek me out while I was in town?”

“Why wouldn’t I seek you out?” Kenny asked, pressing his lips to Uri’s palm. “I’m fucking crazy for you.”

Uri laughed, but Kenny only stared at him.

“I’m not kidding. I’ve killed thirty men for you, you know. I’ve maimed another forty for you—pulled out their fingernails and teeth, sliced their flesh off their bodies, crushed their bones.”

Uri stared up into those unwavering gray eyes. “I know,” he said. “It’s not like I’m totally ignorant of what my brother asks you to do when he sends you away on jobs. Rod tells me everything.”

“Rod tells you everything. Huh.” A weak, half-hearted smirk tugged on Kenny’s lips. “I see. So he really does intend to just hurt you, over and over again.” He grasped one of Uri’s hands and kissed his knuckles. “Everything your brother has told you that I’ve done… have you forgiven me?”

“Yes.”

“Everything your brother hasn’t told you that I’ve done… have you forgiven me for that as well?”

Uri wasn’t certain what Kenny was trying to say. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

“Yes. I told you already, Kenny. You wasted your damn money. There’s nothing that could ever disparage your good name in my eyes.”

Uri thought he saw the beginning of tears in Kenny’s eyes, but quickly Kenny blinked them away.

“I’m happy to have wasted the money. It meant I got to see you while you were in the Capital.”

There were a thousand things Uri wanted to say, but his words were forgotten upon the touch of Kenny’s lips to his. The shyness of Kenny’s kiss didn’t last long, and soon they were entwined in each other’s embrace. When Uri reached down to touch him, however, Kenny slapped away his hand. He frowned.

“Kenny, did I do something wrong…?”

“I want to touch you now,” Kenny muttered as he drew back slightly. “Relax, and let me take charge for now.”

“Oh? I should let you take charge? Do you think you could make me beg?”

Kenny bristled at the challenge. “Of course, I could,” he grumbled, his voice muffled as he dragged his lips down Uri’s throat. He paused at the junction of his neck and shoulder. “You know, you got a smart mouth.”

“And you don’t? Naughty pet…” Uri reached up to swat Kenny’s ass, but as soon as his hand lifted from the table, Kenny pinned his wrist above his head. His heart jumped in his chest. He really had taken for granted Kenny’s power transfer. An uneasy smile crossed his lips. “Very naughty pet…”

“Relax,” Kenny repeated, his half-lidded eyes still bright, his lips brushing against that tender spot on Uri’s neck. “Unlike you, I don’t need ropes to tie you down. Just let me for once make you squirm.”

“You’re lucky that I allow that.” Uri laughed. “Go ahead… make me squirm.”

“I do as you command, Lord Reiss.”

Gently at first, Kenny scraped his teeth along the junction of Uri’s neck and shoulder. Then as Uri relaxed, he closed his mouth upon that sensitive area and sucked hard. Uri didn’t realize how his flesh reddened and how later his collar wouldn’t quite hide the mark. Instead, he let his mind wander, thinking how eager Kenny was to please him, how nice it would be to be ridden by this perfect, beautiful creature. When Kenny wrapped a hand around his cock, already stirring again, he gasped.

“What an eager pet you are today,” he whispered. “I bet you’re desperate to be fucked again.”

“Desperate?” Kenny brushed his lips along the jut of Uri’s collarbone and paused to suck hard on the crest of the divot. When he pulled up again, Uri noticed the bright red mark upon his flesh. “No, I don’t believe so. Of course, I want to be fucked, but there’s something I want much more right now that I’ve had a while to think about…”

Without further ado, Kenny scooted downward toward Uri’s pelvis. Uri couldn’t help but rise up on his elbows and watch as his beau kissed the bony protrusion of his hips. Up and down, over and over, Kenny rubbed his shaft and watched with hungry gray eyes as beads of precum bubbled over the tip and rolled down the length. As the minutes ticked by, Kenny’s touch relentless, Uri wobbled on his elbows. His hips began to buck against that grip.

“Kenny, wouldn’t you like to get on me now?”

“I’m quite satisfied at the moment.” Kenny lay his head down on Uri’s lap as his hand continued pumping. “You tell me all the time how gorgeous I am, but you don’t let me admire you very much.”

It was unlike Uri to blush at Kenny’s words. “I’m not beautiful like you.”

“Oh?” Kenny hummed. “You aren’t like me at all, but if I wanted that, I would just stare in a mirror while I jack off. I wouldn’t suck your cock if I didn’t even like to look at it.”

“You like… to look at my cock?”

“Tch, idiot.” Kenny smirked. “It’s the perfect size to fit in my mouth and to hit that spot inside of me. When you’re aroused, it turns this delightful shade of milky pink while the head turns dark pink. And your balls… goddammit, how can a man’s balls be so fucking cute?”

“Don’t call my balls cute… it’s weird.”

“Heh.” With his free hand, Kenny dragged his fingertip from Uri’s bellybutton to the root of his cock, brushing through the fine blonde hair. “I love how tight your abdomen gets when you’re close and how your thighs squeeze together and how you start to move your hips… just as you are now. I want to watch you cum, Lord Reiss. Please, let me see you cum…”

Kenny’s words forced a shudder down his spine just as orgasmic euphoria took him. Uri moaned and shook, his hips bucking against that grip. In silence, Kenny admired the way the cum spilled over Uri’s cock and rolled over his fingers. As Uri gasped to catch his breath, Kenny lapped at the mess that had been made.

“So good,” Kenny whispered. “I need more of your cum.”

Before Uri could process his words, Kenny wrapped his lips around the tip of his cock and tugged him into his mouth. Uri cried out in surprise and tried to push him away, but Kenny easily swatted his hands. In spite of having just came, his cock returned to life upon the velvet insistence of that tongue. He draped his forearm across his eyes and held his breath.

“F-fuck, Kenny,” he choked. “I’m not a machine—“

Uri’s protests fell on deaf ears, and Kenny took him to the back of his mouth, hot upon his pulsing flesh. His back arched against the offering table, his arms stretched overhead, and his toes curled. Sweat trickled along his temples, off his shoulders, down the sides of his body, like the brush of a feather, forcing his tense body to shiver. White clouded his vision—he wasn’t certain if he simply couldn’t see or if it was the ceiling that filled his sight. Still, Kenny paid no mind to his struggle or the hitching of his breath—his focus was entirely upon the throbbing of the erection on his tongue. If he hadn’t been so overwhelmed by the sensation, perhaps Uri might have admired the serenity of Kenny’s eyes, half-lidded, and the enthusiasm of his tongue, determined to drain him dry.

“Goddammit, Kenny,” he murmured. “St-stop… it’s too much… I can’t stand much more…!”

Uri bristled when Kenny laughed, his chuckles muffled against his cock. A new wave of blood rushed to his face. Of course, Kenny was going to make him pay for teasing him for the past four hours. At home, Kenny wouldn’t have been able to get away with it—by this point, Uri would have had him tied up with his ass in the air, the perfect position to spank him until he begged for mercy. Here, Kenny could do as he pleased. Still, perhaps it wasn’t such a bad change of pace. Uri threw his head back, his mouth gasping for air.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m going to cum again,” he said. “Fuck, fuck, Kenny…!”

Sensory overload took firm hold of his mind and body. When the next wave of ecstasy hit him, Uri knew for certain he couldn’t see any longer. His gasps crescendoed to lewd whines from his mouth, slack and open wide. Humming contently, Kenny sucked up every drop of cum that splashed upon his tongue and swallowed it. As the wave subsided, Uri curled his twisted lip into a smirk.

“I swear, when you come home finally, I won’t have forgotten this…”

“I hope not,” Kenny muttered as he pulled his mouth back. With the forefinger and thumb of his left hand, he squeezed tightly around the base of Uri’s cock, trapping the blood in his erection. He swirled the forefinger and middle finger of his right hand in his mouth. “Still, you said you’ve forgiven my sins, regardless of what I’ve done. If I didn’t get something out of this visit, then I really would have wasted my money.”

Uri chuckled, in spite of not being able to feel in his face but the burning of his blush. “You said I had a smart mouth, but I think you’re the one with that…”

“I also said you were always right.” Kenny removed his saliva-slicked fingers from his mouth and reached behind him. He inhaled sharply. “But if I’m incorrect about one thing, I could always be incorrect about the other.”

“Fuck, you do have a smart mouth.” Uri grinned. “I’d fuck that smart mouth into silence if you hadn’t already sucked me dry.”

“Oh? I’ve only made you cum four times today. How many times did I cum already at your insistence…?”

Uri paused and thought for a moment. “I suppose about seven times.”

“Eight.”

“Eight? Fuck.”

“About to be nine.”

“About to be nine,” Uri repeated breathlessly. “I suppose maybe I deserved it then.”

Kenny sighed shakily as he pulled his right hand away from himself. “It’s not so bad, is it?” he asked hesitantly.

“What? No, of course it isn’t bad. I’m pleased that you need so badly to please me.” Uri licked his dry lips. “I just need my sweet pet to ride my cock like I asked for in the beginning…”

“Yes, Lord Reiss.”

Kenny sat upright and released Uri’s cock from his vice grip before lining his hips up with Uri’s. Just the brush of the tip of his cock against that puckered entrance made Uri squirm. Before the exhausted erection could subside, Kenny pushed down with his hips and easily took Uri in down to the root. Uri’s fingers curled around the edge of the table over his head as those warm, inviting insides squeezed down on him. His gaze flickered down to Kenny and settled upon his swollen, half-hard cock. As Kenny brushed away from his face the hair that stuck to his sweat-slicked temples, Uri watched as that cock he adored perked up.

“Are you enjoying the view?” Kenny asked with a simper. “You’re not usually the one who is reduced to drooling.”

“What a smart fucking mouth you have,” Uri muttered. “I’m going to have to put you in your place.”

Before Kenny could reply, Uri reached down and brought one hand down hard on his ass before clutching those thick, muscular thighs. He thrust his hips upward into Kenny, bouncing the other man atop of him. Kenny yelped at the sudden movement, but he took the cue and settled into Uri’s rhythm. Uri couldn’t help but admire the tightness of those thighs, squeezing against each other just like those insides against his cock. When the head of his cock brushed against that hot spot on the inside, Kenny sucked in a sharp breath. His dripping cock stiffened and his hips quivered as Uri filled him over and over again.

“Oh god,” Kenny murmured. “Please touch me…”

Uri eagerly obliged, wrapping his dominant hand around Kenny’s shaft. His thumb brushed the underside of the head and swirled around the tip to collect the precum. By now, Kenny’s movements were frenetic and desperate. In spite of his senses having been overloaded previously, Uri wanted nothing more than to fill that needy slut. The throbbing beneath his grip matched the throbbing in his own loins.

“Good boy,” he said. “Keep moving like that."

As the minutes ticked by, they inched closer to the edge, their moans filling the inner sanctum. Uri momentarily recalled that there was only a velvet curtain between them and the sanctuary, where the clergy could potentially hear them. Then again, it would be no surprise to him if they would martyr their saintly mothers to ride to hell between those thighs. His thoughts slipped away when Kenny sucked in a ragged breath and threw back his head. Kenny dragged his fingernails down Uri’s chest, his thighs squeezing together and clamping down just like his insides upon Uri.

“Lord Reiss, please cum,” he begged. “I want you to cum inside of me.”

Uri couldn’t resist the pleas of his lover. One hand tightened upon the crest of his hips as the other gripped Kenny’s shaft. With one last upward thrust, he felt the rush of pure euphoria. Upon Uri burying his seed inside of him, Kenny cried out, his cum splashing upon Uri’s belly and rolling down Uri’s hand. Reeling from the pleasure, their tense bodies remained stiff until the moment passed. Then, breathlessly, Kenny slumped forward and dropped his head between his hunched shoulders.

“Fuck.”

After they separated themselves from each other’s embrace about ten minutes later, they both cursed the soreness in their hips and bellies in secret. It was just a moment later that Uri realized his white clothes were soaked through with sweat, but hopefully the darkness of the sanctuary during the twilight service would hide his sin. Kenny didn’t mention the hickey upon his neck that peeked up over his collar when he said that his appearance was fine. For a while, their lips lingered on each other’s until finally Uri broke it off reluctantly.

“How much longer will you be gone?” he asked.

“At most? Two months.” Kenny brushed his fingers through Uri’s blonde hair, smoothing it down. “When I believe Levi won’t be devastated when I leave him is the moment I’ll walk away.”

“Right.” Uri wanted to feel sorry for the child, but he was still more sorry for himself. “And you’re sure you don’t want to just bring him home with you?”

“I’m certain.” Kenny planted one last kiss upon the top of Uri’s head. “I understand now what you meant when you said everyone was better off away from me.”

“Except for me,” Uri said. “I’m not better off without you.”

Kenny’s lips pressed together into a tight line. “Right.”

“I love you, Kenny.”

Uri stared up at Kenny, but Kenny avoided his gaze.

“Yeah, I love you, too,” was his murmured answer.

That night, Uri returned to his townhouse one last time while Kenny returned to the Underground. For the first time in weeks, he slept soundly in his bed without nightmares or tears, and in the morning, he set out for home. If he had known the storm that awaited him back at the Reiss estate, however, he might have stayed in the Capital longer. Hindsight was a bitch like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, okay, I had another chapter prepared to upload, but while Yulia was here last weekend, I got stuck on church sex. Literally this entire chapter was just an excuse to write that.
> 
> This will be another one of those times that the next chapter comes quick (insert giggling here). Trigger warnings return next time, so prepare yourself as much as you can.


	12. Théodicée

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uri discovers his brother's betrayal and now must find Kenny before Rod enacts his plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: gore
> 
> Sorry for the slight delay with this chapter update. I ended up having more to do for MTAC than I had realized. Even though the preparation for it really stressed me out, I had a really great time at MTAC and I can't wait for next year!
> 
> My next big con is Momocon (and I already know I'll be meeting at least three or four of you loyal readers there), and I know some of you guys have asked me to break out the Uriken cosplay at my next con but I'm still trying to convince the fiancee to consider it for Thursday or Sunday. Maybe if I build a giant hand, she'll do it~
> 
> I'm aiming for twice monthly updates again, but I'm going to start work on other projects. There will only be one more story arc after this betrayal arc finishes (or at least that's the plan for now), and I want to conclude this story by July or August. Even after it ends, I may occasionally do just smut scenes that take place in the Reiss, Immaculate AU, just for funsies.
> 
> If you aren't following me on Instagram, that's pretty much where I spend 99% of my online time now so go follow @caitybelleackeryandere ~~

For five minutes now, Uri had stared at the paperwork upon his desk and had done his best to ignore his older brother, standing in the doorway. He had known since his return home two days ago that this confrontation would happen, but he still had no desire to go through with it. However, Rod wasn’t going to leave it alone. He crossed and uncrossed his stocky arms across his round chest, waiting for Uri to acknowledge him. With a sigh, he leaned against the doorframe.

“I don’t appreciate how you left a note to tell me of your whereabouts instead of speaking to me personally,” he finally said. “It was irresponsible and thoughtless.”

“Irresponsible and thoughtless to live my life as I please?” Uri gripped his pen tighter and scratched aimlessly at the document before him. “Since when were you my keeper?”

“You and your wellbeing are my responsibility—therefore, I have always been your keeper.” Rod stepped into the office and hovered near the desk. If he had expected Uri to invite him to sit down, then he would be disappointed. “It would have been different if perhaps Kenny had accompanied you, but you were alone.”

“You don’t trust Kenny,” Uri muttered. “What difference would it have made to you?”

“Kenny knows the appropriate moment to end a threat. He and I are alike in that way, I suppose.”

“And you say I don’t know how to end threats?”

“Did I stutter? That’s partly why I came to talk to you.”

“Right.” Uri sneered inwardly and gritted his teeth. “Then you best sit down and get it all out. I don’t have all day to waste.”

“Little brother,” Rod muttered as he took a seat across from him. “It would behoove you to pay more respect to your older brother. Perhaps you should take a break from your work for a moment to listen to what I have to say?”

“Oh? You feel entitled to my attention?” Uri set down his pen and folded his hands on his desk in front of him. “I hope you don’t plan to bore me to death.”

“Oh, I’m certain to have your attention soon, whether you wish to give it or not.” With a sneer, Rod reached into the inner pocket of his blazer and laid his copy of Kenny’s contract on the desk in front of him. “I understand you and Kenny came to an agreement over his extended absence?”

“Of course.” Uri resisted the urge to read Rod’s mind. Whatever he was thinking, he was certain he didn’t want to know. “It’s an informal agreement. You can understand the reasons behind an informal agreement, correct?”

“What is the purpose of his extended absence?”

Uri opened his mouth to answer, but Kenny’s hesitancy to even mention his nephew came to mind.

“He required personal time.”

“Personal time?” Rod crossed his arms against his chest once more. “And you allow months-long absences for the sake of giving him space? Heh… bullshit. I didn’t think you were that stupid, Uri, but you surprise me yet.”

“Insulting me does you no favors. What do you want, big brother?”

“As you’re well aware,” the elder Reiss brother began, “I own everything of yours, including Kenny—“

“That’s not true.” Uri gripped the edge of the desk, his knuckles turning white. “You don’t—“

Rod raised his hand, and Uri’s entire upbringing demanded his silence. Uri held his tongue in that moment.

“Like I said, I own everything of yours, including Kenny. You could say that I own you as well. So… I have some concerns regarding this extended absence.” His hand fell and rested upon the contract. “You are aware that this contract expires in three weeks, aren’t you?”

Uri’s heart dropped in his chest. “Yes, I am aware.”

“I’m very concerned.” Rod’s chubby fingers tapped the desk. “What happens if he doesn’t return by then?”

Uri again opened his mouth to answer, but Rod filled in the blanks for him.

“I’ll tell you what happens. He will no longer be under our protection, and whoever wants to hunt him will be free to do so. Upon the day the contract expires, I’ll alert the Military Police. I’m certain they’re not through with him.”

“You’ll do no such thing, or I swear I will—“

“Oh, are you going to stop me?” Rod’s dark eyes burned like hellfire. “If you threaten me, then I won’t hesitate to have you neutralized right now. You want to be able to warn him, don’t you? You know where he is, don’t you?” A smirk slithered onto his face. “He’s with his sister and her child, correct? In the Underground?”

“How did you—?”

“Kuchel has a child, right? How old do you figure he is? Seven… eight years old? If Kenny has any influence over him, I’m sure he’ll be just as much trouble. Perhaps you should have Kenny bring him back. We could use another Ackerman. His sister, as well, might be some use—“

“His sister is dead.” Uri held his breath. “The child, I believe, is also close to death. He’s not worth anything to you.”

“Oh? He’s not worth anything now, but imagine what he could become. Kenny is like a wild stallion… satisfying to break in but it’ll never adapt fully to its situation. A horse bred in captivity, however, doesn’t know the wild. It’ll never fight back against you. I wouldn’t mind having that to exploit.”

“You’re fucking sick in the head.” Uri cradled his pounding head in his hands. “What is this really…? I haven’t read your mind in over three months because I’ve been so damn frightened to see what I might find there… so you may as well just tell me what you’ve done. You told Kenny about my fate, didn’t you? You told him about the letters I hid from him, too, right?”

“Guilty as charged. He would find out eventually, so there’s no harm in telling him what he should have known when you made that contract.” His chuckle was anything but light-hearted. “You know, there’s something very satisfying about making him cry.”

“What the fuck did you do?” Uri roared. The force of standing upright knocked his chair over. “I swear, Rod, if you touched him…”

“I already said that if you threaten me, I’d have to neutralize you. I’m warning you now, little brother.”

Uri couldn’t help himself any longer. Rod’s memories flooded his brain—disjointed images of Kenny in the cave. He clutched his stomach, twisted in knots, suddenly feeling sick. How could he possibly allow his brother to get away with this crime…?

“You sick fuck!” he screamed. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

His first instinct was to bite into his hand, but Rod had been prepared and had drawn a dart gun from his pocket, pulling the trigger almost as soon as Uri had uttered the words. Uri froze when he felt the tranquilizer dart in his neck. Slowly, he reached up to touch it, but his body had already given in. Now only a heap in the floor, he groaned as his older brother stood over him. Rod sighed.

“I’m not stupid enough to come unprepared,” he said. “I did warn you.”

When Rod kicked him sharply in the head, Uri snapped out of consciousness. Seemingly moments later, he awakened with a start. Slowly, everything came into focus, and he recognized his current surroundings as his own basement. He tried to move, but his wrists had been strung up above his head, and his ankles were bound together and hanging freely beneath him. When groggily he looked straight ahead, he saw his brother there with arms crossed. Uri snapped back into his senses, but when he tried to speak, he realized he had been gagged with a bit. A flash of anger rushed through him.

“You shouldn’t say such rash things,” Rod said with a sigh. “Threaten to kill your older brother? Well, I’m just going to have to let you cool off for a little while. Perhaps I’ll leave you here until that contract is up? I’ll have to come back and give you water every two days to make sure you don’t die, but even then you’ll probably be okay.” The grin never seemed to leave his chubby face. “You know, perhaps if you hadn’t been so selfish, I wouldn’t have needed to take drastic measures in regard to Kenny. If I can’t have a damn thing, then why should you get to keep him? It just wouldn’t be fair…”

Uri knew better than to struggle. He wouldn’t give his cruel older brother the satisfaction. Rod clicked his tongue.

“Don’t look so angry… you’ll get wrinkles.” He spun on his heels and walked toward the door. “No one is coming to rescue you—especially not your precious Kenny—so you may as well forget about trying to escape. Make peace with that, okay? Enjoy your weekend.”

As soon as the door shut behind Rod, Uri wasted no time, analyzing every possible escape. There was no time to wait for someone to rescue him by happenstance. At first, he had wondered if he could reach the emergency release on the suspension rig, but he had built it to Kenny’s dimensions and not his own. Whereas Kenny could easily disengage the tension in the rope by pressing the button on a metal buckle, it was far out of his own reach. All the fail-safes and safety measures had been installed with Kenny’s build in mind, and Uri was far too small to utilize any of them. Still, he couldn’t give up so easily.

With a sharpened fingernail, he sliced through the palm of his hand. Even if the tranquilizer had weakened him and made him unable to use his Titan shifting abilities, his healing was still active as signaled by the slow rise of steam from the wound. His eyes wandered to the silk rope that had been attached to the suspension cuffs around his wrists. It was too strong to saw through with his fingernail, but he had other options. His brother really should have fixed his ankles to an attachment point if he hadn’t wanted him to escape, he thought, chagrined. Bracing himself with the left arm, he lifted himself just enough to slacken the rope that suspended his right arm. His stomach twisted painfully as he wrapped the slack around his wrist, and then he released the tension in his left arm and dropped down.

He groaned at the sick snapping of bones, and his right hand hung limply. Even in so much pain, he couldn’t stop if he were to escape. In spite of all his instincts screaming the opposite at him, he pulled his right arm down. The rope tightened over his flesh, fragments of broken bone fighting to break through his skin. If he stopped for just a moment, he would heal—the coordinate screamed this at him every second of his agony. Still, this was the only way to escape. The minutes dragged by as his flesh slowly gave way, steaming blood dribbling down his arm. When finally the bones slashed through his skin, he screamed in agony, although the gag stifled his anguish. Blood gushed down now, covering him. He only had so much time before the blood loss made him pass out—if that happened, all his pain would have been for nothing. With renewed vigor, he tugged hard. The ripping of flesh signaled his release, and his arm pulled free of its trap.

Uri never had become accustomed to mutilating himself. Even now, he stared between the stump of his arm and the hand upon the floor before him, dissipating into steam. Without the ongoing trauma to his limb, the supernatural healing could finally do its work. Already, he had stopped bleeding as his body very slowly regenerated the missing hand. Weakly, Uri hung there by his left arm and waited. With his powers suppressed, it took about six hours for his hand to reform. Once his hand was back to normal, with the last of his strength, he pulled himself up high enough to reach the disengagement button. With a thud, he landed in a heap on the floor.

His body pleaded for rest, but he couldn’t risk waiting for his brother to discover his escape. After removing the binds from his ankles, he crawled, legs too weak to stand, across the basement and up the stairs. Finally by the time he reached his bedroom, he managed to rise to his feet. Quickly, he changed into a fresh set of clothes, packed a backpack full of everything he might need—clothes, money, knife, gun, and bullets, among other things—and threw on his black cloak over himself. On the way out, he stopped by his office and grabbed the contract that Kenny would have to sign to ensure his continued protection.

Now that night had fallen, he used the cover of darkness to run out of his villa undetected. He forewent a horse in the meantime, for his brother might not notice his absence immediately but the stable boy would miss the horse. On foot, he arrived in town in an hour. There, he managed to steal a horse and quickly fled. Armed with only the memories of the coordinate, he set off for the Capital, where he would find the Underground City beneath. If he recalled correctly, it would be a two-day ride on horseback. He rode until sunrise, when he found an abandoned barn to sleep the day away. As evening settled that second day, he saddled up the horse and again headed toward his destination. Maybe by now his brother had gone to check up on him and had discovered his grisly escape.

Just at sun up the next morning, he navigated the Capital and arrived at the entrance of the Underground. He abandoned the horse, worn nearly to death, at a nearby tavern and approached the stairwell. The guard didn’t seem to recognize him thankfully and allowed his passage after he paid the proper toll. It would be a week before that guard made the connection between him and the picture of the missing noble shown in the paper the next day. However, by that time, the search would be in the hands of the Interior Brigade.

Uri wasn’t certain what he had expected to see in the Underground City. The coordinate had known the location yet it remained eerily silent on what he might find. The streets in the first area, like a grid, were relatively easy to navigate, and it seemed like any poor town but within a cave not unlike the one beneath the Reiss chapel. Unlike the cave on his property, which was lit by glowing stones, the Underground seemed to be lit by streetlamps and holes in the cavern’s ceiling above. Still, he felt uneasy when he walked through what must have been the red light district, lined with bars and brothels. Since it was barely morning, he decided to get some rest and stopped by a tavern for a few hours. Once rested, he set about finding Kenny.

“Do you know a man who goes by the name Kenny?” he asked when he handed the key back to the innkeeper. “I’m looking for him.”

The innkeeper didn’t look back at him.

“Kenny the Ripper?”

“Yes.”

“It would be best if you gave up your search.”

Uri opened his mouth to retort, but the innkeeper turned away and retreated from his place behind the desk. With a sigh of resignation, he departed from the inn. Nearby, he found a seedy bar, where he asked the workers and patrons about Kenny. They were just as unhelpful. He went from bar to bar, the establishments seedier and sketchier with each one, asking the same question. His only hope was that someone would report to Kenny that some short blonde man was asking about him and that Kenny himself would come to find him—that was, before he got himself in trouble.

After having no luck at the bars, Uri decided to wander the streets. The Underground itself outside of that red light district was a labyrinth, each turn either leading to another alleyway or a dead end. He wasn’t certain what time it was now aboveground, but he didn’t assume that the Underground went by the same hours. His own sleep schedule had been disturbed by his flight from his home, so his wakefulness was no help in discerning if it were morning or evening. He did notice, however, that the streets were eerily empty save for one woman who drank beer on a corner. He ignored her when she pointed and shouted gibberish at him. He realized he was lost when he happened upon her again, still shouting nonsense.

Uri must have wandered in circles for at least an hour, trying to find his way back to where he had started. Asking the bum on the corner that he kept passing was no help. He knocked on the door of a shanty house, but the woman inside threatened to stab him if he didn’t get off her doorstep. Even if he happened upon a member of the Military Police, he couldn’t tell them who he looked for or who was he himself. Perhaps it hadn’t been the best idea to explore the Underground, where even the coordinate had no knowledge of its paths.

Upon running into the bum one more time, he threw up his hands and stormed off into an alleyway. Of course, after taking that winding path between derelict houses, he ran into another dead end. With a frustrated cry, he tore off his backpack and pitched it against the brick barricade. Pressing his forehead against the wall, he sucked in a deep breath. He was ten seconds away from breaking down into tears. Still, he thought grimly to himself, it wasn’t like anyone was here to see him cry anyway. Just as soon as he let out the first pathetic sob, he heard someone behind him.

“What a predicament you’ve found yourself in. If only there was someone who would rescue you.”

Uri sniffled and looked over his shoulder. There stood a ragtag group of seven men, all glaring daggers at him. Bristling, Uri spun on his heels to face them. He dragged the sleeve of his cloak across his face.

“You’re looking for Kenny the Ripper, right?” the stocky bald man at the front of the group said. When he spoke, Uri could see the missing teeth. “There was word going around that some blonde idiot was looking for him.”

“You could say that,” Uri huffed. His shoulders stiffened as they came closer. “Why do you ask? Do you know where I could find him?”

“Kenny’s friends aren’t welcome in the Underground. You would know that if you were from around here.” He pointed at Uri’s backpack, crumpled on the ground beside him. “You look like you got a lot of money. Leave it here, and you won’t have any trouble.”

“Th-that’s not going to end well for you—trying to order me around or intimidate me.” Uri clenched his fists. Certainly, he could stand his ground against this motley crew. “If you know where Kenny is and answer the question, then I might forget you ever said anything.”

“Hah! If I knew where he was, don’t you figure I would have gone after him myself?” The leader of the group cackled bitterly, and the others joined in a chorus of nervous laughter. “My brother owned a brothel… it wasn’t his fault that his whore of a sister died while under his employment. So what if he didn’t bother checking on her? Then Kenny came along and smashed in his face. He was so badly fucked up that his brain was exposed. It took him four days to die, and it’s not like he wasn’t aware of the pain. He groaned and screamed until finally he couldn’t breathe anymore.”

“That sounds really bad,” Uri muttered, “but it sounds like that scum deserved it. Honestly, I’m disappointed that Kenny didn’t pull out his fingernails as well.”

The stocky man balked while the rest of the group fell silent for a split second before erupting into an uproar. Their cries were more akin to animals’ sounds, but he figured that was appropriate for them.

“Do you want to die?” the group leader asked, drawing a hammer from his coat pocket. “I’m going to smash your fucking pretty-boy face…!”

Uri wasn’t interested in being victimized more than once this week. Indulging the coordinate’s sadistic tendencies every once in a while wouldn’t hurt, either. The men gasped in horror when his eyes turned to black.

“I didn’t realize you wanted so badly to harm yourself,” Uri spoke. “I won’t stop you from pulling your teeth from your head. Go ahead. I don’t mind.”

Horrified, the group looked to their leader, whose hands without hesitation hooked the hammer around the top front tooth and forced it out of its socket. He screamed as blood gushed from his mouth and down his chin, and the tooth dropped to the ground. When his hands continued, half the men grabbed his arms and tried to stop him while the other half turned on Uri.

“Oh, what a shame,” Uri said, his confidence returning. “It appears that you are covered in rats, feasting on your corpses.”

His current aggressors stared down at their bodies and started screaming at nothing. The other half of the group, still trying to pull away the leader’s hammer and to stop him from destroying his mouth, bristled in terror. Uri, completely possessed by the coordinate at this point, grinned as he stood in solidarity.

“Oh, that’s terrifying?” He simpered. “Perhaps if you knew what I knew, then you would claw out your eyes. Perhaps you would piss yourself every time you were reminded of just a hint of that terror.”

“What are you?” one of the men with his mind intact screamed. Uri heard the clamor of footsteps just around the corner of the alleyway, and he wondered if there were more of these filthy animals.

“A monster,“ he started to say, but he was interrupted by the answer, “The only man who is stronger than me.”

Uri looked past the men and to the corner, and Kenny stood there. His clothes weren’t as neatly kept as usual, but he was as immaculate underground as he was aboveground otherwise. Beside him was a small boy, only standing as high as Kenny’s hip. He was very much in line with how Uri imagined most Ackermans looked—black hair, long on top but trimmed underneath, gray eyes, high cheekbones, thin eyebrows that scowled at rest, and porcelain skin. Still, Uri thought it was strange that the child was so _short_. Kenny was undoubtedly armed, although he hid his weapons in his trench coat, but the child was more blatant, clutching his knife, the blade held to better accommodate slashing. Uri wasn’t certain why his heart fluttered at that moment. The boy’s gaze intensified upon Uri as he tried to decipher whether he was friend or foe. Kenny huffed and ruffled the boy’s hair.

“It’s okay, Levi,” he said. “He’s my employer.”

Being referred to as an employer rather than a lover shouldn’t have hurt Uri. At that moment, the men with minds still whole screamed, grabbed their leader’s arms, and broke off into a run down the alleyway. The half with their minds plagued by imaginary rats ran after their comrades, desperate to escape the terror. Kenny looked down at the child beside him as the men rushed past them.

“Go after them, Levi,” Kenny snapped. “Don’t let a single man escape.”

Before Kenny had finished speaking, the small child had already bounded around the corner, knife in hand. Kenny walked over to where the tooth lay on the ground and stared down at it, his back turned to Uri. Uri braced himself against the brick wall, his hands starting to shake. A sigh of relief escaped his lips.

“Th-thank goodness you found—“

Kenny spun on his heels, his open palm connecting with Uri’s cheek. The force of the impact knocked Uri off balance, and he tumbled to the ground in a heap. With fire in his gray eyes, Kenny stood over him.

“Idiot,” he hissed. “What made you think it was a good idea to come down here and ask all the wrong people about where I was?”

“Kenny, I’m sorry…”

“Besides—you didn’t have to do that to them,” he snarled. “You could have made them forget why they were there. You could have told them to turn around and walk away. Instead, you thought it would be fun to be sadistic and to make them hurt themselves. I’m fucking disgusted. You’re too good for that. It’s why I do all that I do for you, so you don’t dirty yourself with that shit. I submit myself to you so that you have a way to take out your angst because I can take the pain, but I guess I’m just not good enough now. Is that it?”

“Kenny… I’m sorry,” was all Uri could say before he crumpled into tears. Everything that had happened in the past few days had been too much for him, and now he was reduced to a sobbing mess. “I-I’m so-sorry…”

For what felt like forever, Kenny stood there, unmoving. Finally, with a sigh, he kneeled down before Uri, withdrew a handkerchief from his coat pocket, and handed it to him. Uri momentarily noticed the faded blood stains before blowing his nose.

“That confrontation was going to happen sooner or later, I suppose.”

Uri dabbed at his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.

“I hope you have a good reason for being down here—other than to see yours truly, of course.” Kenny brushed Uri’s hair away from his face and hesitantly touched his reddened cheek. “I’m sorry, Uri. I shouldn’t have hit you like that. I was angry, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I guess I too quickly assumed that maybe you bent their minds like that intentionally, but maybe you were just really scared and couldn’t think of any other way out.”

Uri didn’t mean to shove him away so hard when he rose to his feet. “Please stop always thinking that I’m helpless, that I can’t save myself. Really, you have no idea. You say I’m stronger than you, but you never let me prove that in any way.”

“You don’t have to prove it again,” Kenny answered, standing up beside him. “You made it evident to me once that day on the field, when you didn’t flinch at my knife.”

“I want to prove it again, however.” Uri smirked, his ambivalence at an all time high. “Do you think you could take me in this dead end? Let me prove that I’m not scared.”

For a long moment, Kenny stared down at him, his gray eyes unreadable, his lips pressed in a tight line.

“Is it something you need right now?”

“Yes.”

“Hmmm. I see.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Uri saw the flash of a blade. If Kenny hadn’t held back and had pressed the sharp side instead of the dull side against his throat, he might have fully understood why they called him the Ripper. A smirk played out on Kenny’s lips as he pressed his body flush against Uri.

“Go ahead then,” he said. “Prove it.”

The coordinate begged Uri not to do it, but he ignored its warning. If anyone happened upon them, he could wipe their memories. He forgot momentarily the Ackerman child, whose memories likely couldn’t be manipulated. He raised his newly regrown hand and threw it against the tip of the blade. Kenny’s cry of surprise was lost in the sudden crackle of the air around them, and the rise of steam obscured him momentarily.

Uri gazed upon the Titan’s arm that had formed where his arm once was. Kenny had ended up with his back flat against the palm of the large hand, his head resting against the pads of the fingertips of the middle and ring fingers. His legs dangled over the wrist. He squirmed when Uri curled the forefinger and the pinky around his shoulders. When he reached up to touch the two fingers, they lifted and pinned his hands beneath the fingertips.

“Uri, you shouldn’t do this…”

“Oh, I shouldn’t?” Uri moved the giant thumb, gently gliding underneath Kenny’s untucked shirt and tugging it up to reveal his chest. “I’m not crushing you, am I?”

“No… it’s strong but as light as a feather. It’s really warm, too.” Kenny pressed against the thumb. A blush spread across his body. “You’re not going to do anything weird, are you?”

Uri hadn’t dreamed of this very scenario for years just to release his prey upon initiation. He hummed his amusement.

“I can’t promise that. It’s not like anyone will find us here.”

“Wh-what if Levi comes back?”

“I guess you better hope that he doesn’t. That might raise some questions about your relationship with your _employer_.”

“Heh, are you mad about that?” Kenny placed one heel against the base of the palm and tried to leverage himself beneath the thumb. It, however, held fast. “Come on… Let me go, Uri…”

“Are you really that terrified of my power still? You’re starting to tremble.”

“It’s not that I’m scared,” Kenny lied. “I just don’t like to be trapped.” He looked away, his cheeks on fire. “But go ahead. I did say it was okay, even if I won’t enjoy it…”

“You won’t enjoy it?” Uri gasped, his voice warbling. “Don’t say that…”

“Then you better make me enjoy it, pervert.”

“Oh?” Uri bristled at the challenge. “I suppose I had better, then.” The giant thumb moved upon Kenny’s chest, the very tip nudging at his shapely pectorals. “Either way, you’re completely helpless to escape.”

Kenny opened his mouth to protest, but then the thumb very lightly brushed against his nipple. Scarlet flooded his cheeks. Uri felt the shudder of his spine, the arch of his back, the squirming of his hips against his Titan hand. Again the large fingertip passed over the sensitive flesh, hardening beneath the graze. Just barely the large thumb passed over the stiff nubbin over and over again, forcing a moan from his beau.

From this angle, watching just a few feet away, Uri could better appreciate the erotic movement of Kenny’s body. The firm pectorals perked up when their nipples were teased, demanding attention even as Kenny begged to be teased no more. The abdominals tightened, their lines becoming more severe and more defined. The hips squirmed back and forth, side-to-side, and gyrated erratically. The thighs, able to crush skulls, squeezed together, and the feet flailed, the heels finding a grip but slipping just as quickly. If Uri had been more artistically inclined, perhaps he would have painted it or written about it or composed music about it. He simpered. It would have to do to keep this picturesque scene to himself.

“How lewd,” Uri mused. “You can’t help but get worked up when you’re teased like this.”

“St-stop,” Kenny stuttered. His mouth slackened as his head flailed back against the fingers beneath it. “Th-that’s not fair…”

“Not fair? Hmmm, I see.”

The thumb moved from its relentless teasing of hardened buds and followed the slight curve of his left side, trailing down to his hip. Already, Uri could see the bulge in Kenny’s pants, stiffening with each passing moment. Still, the thumb felt along the outside of the thigh, dragged up the inside, and circled back to the hip. A bright flush spread across Kenny’s belly when the thumb lingered on the crest of his hip.

“Move,” Kenny huffed. His hips wriggled. “St-stop being coy…”

“But it’s so fun to play with you,” Uri purred.

He skimmed the thumb right across the waistband of Kenny’s pants before dragging it up his belly and to his chest once more. Kenny sucked in a ragged breath as the fleshy pad resumed teasing his nipples. His head tossed back and forth, the slap of the soles of his shoes against the Titan’s wrist just barely drowning out his stifled cries.

“Please,” Kenny gasped, “touch me…”

“I am touching you.”

“Touch me!” he repeated, louder this time. For seeming to care once if anyone came this way, he must have forgotten his shame. “Pl-please… Move your touch down…”

“You’ll have to tell me where. I can only move with intention, so if I have no instruction, this hand will do as it pleases.”

“Pervert…!”

“Yes, but I knew that already. Tell me where you want to be touched.”

Kenny looked away, his cheeks swollen with redness. “Touch me between my legs…”

Uri pressed his lips into a simper—perhaps it had been Kenny’s initial terror that made his body so sensitive to touch now. The large thumb moved and hovered above the fly of Kenny’s pants, close enough to feel the heat from his erection. Uri kept it just out of reach of Kenny’s thrashing hips, desperate for any touch at this point. Finally, he lowered the thumb, and at once, Kenny trapped it between his thighs and wrapped his legs around it. With wild abandon, he grinded against it, his lips twisted into an O and his eyes glazed over. Uri couldn’t help but blush and moan at the sudden tightness in his own pants.

“What a little slut you are,” Uri cooed. “I suppose I’ll allow you this one. You may as well cum for me…”

In spite of his attempted nonchalance, Uri relished the way Kenny used his giant hand, rubbing himself against it. His little needy whines became less and less frequent as he quickly approached release, until finally he let out one last cry. His hips and thighs quivered before suddenly slackening, and he collapsed against the palm of the giant hand. Uri uncurled the fingers that trapped his hands, but Kenny didn’t move away. Instead, he curled up on his side and gulped for breath.

“Fuck,” he said between gasps. “Th-that’s enough…”

“Heh. Right.”

Suddenly, the thumb moved again, rolling Kenny over onto his front. Before he could react, the fingers closed around his middle, trapping him with his ass up over the edge of the palm and so that his arms couldn’t interfere. Uri maneuvered so that he was still connected to the Titan hand but he was now behind Kenny. His normal hand skimmed over the back of Kenny’s thigh and tugged down his pants to his shaking knees. He brushed his fingertips between Kenny’s legs and through the hot, sticky cum that dripped from his cock. When his hand wrapped around the still swollen shaft, Kenny wriggled.

“Hurry,” he gasped. His sweat-slicked thighs squeezed together. “Just do it if you’re going to do it…”

“Are you still nervous that someone will come along and see you like this?” Uri pressed his hips flush against Kenny’s ass. Even through the thickness of his cloak, the outline of his erection seemed to fit perfectly there. “You’ve certainly been too lewd to have such trifles upon the mind.”

“Idiot, I don’t care about that.” Kenny paused upon feeling Uri against him. “What if someone sees what you really are…?”

“As a monster? I suppose I should hurry up and fuck you then.”

“You should,” the trapped man snapped. “Hurry!”

With his free hand, Uri reached down for his backpack on the ground beside him. Struggling, he rooted around until he finally pulled out the jar of lubricant. Kenny sucked in a surprised gasp when Uri’s cold, slicked fingertips pressed against his puckered entrance. Uri dragged his fingertips in laborious circles around it, prompting a shudder down Kenny’s spine that he felt in his desensitized Titan grasp.

“Wh-what are you doing? Hurry…” Kenny’s grip upon the hand that held him was just as tight. “Just do it…”

Uri pressed slightly, and his fingers easily slid in. A low moan escaped his lover’s lips, trembling like his hips. His fingers curled, the pads of his fingertips rubbing little circles upon the sweet spot. The sharp arch of Kenny’s spine was enough to make his pulse thunder, but the accompanying whines very nearly drove him mad. As Kenny’s noises crescendoed, Uri thrust his fingers while making scissoring motions.

“Your insides are burning hot,” Uri purred. “Do you really need to be fucked that badly?”

“Hurry…”

“If you insist…”

Uri withdrew his fingers, and Kenny’s hips reeled from the sudden emptiness. Only having one hand to use proved difficult as he tried all at once to lift his cloak and to tug out his cock. At least Kenny, sighing and bucking his hips, was oblivious to his struggle, he thought to himself as he held the bunched fabric of his cloak beneath his chin and slathered himself with lubricant. Easily he was taken in to the root by the hungry little hole, swallowing his length and squeezing tightly around his shaft. Uri shuddered at the sensation, his eyes blown wide. The wriggling of his beau’s hips and the huffy little whines threatened to shatter Uri’s poise, but he sucked in a deep breath and willed the building pressure at the base of his spine to hold steady for just a while longer. His free hand wrapped around Kenny’s cock.

“You’re such a good boy,” he cooed. “Keep doing that with your hips and making those little sounds, and I’ll cum in no time at all.”

“Fucking hurry,” was the only response.

“I’ll have to remind you of your manners another time,” Uri sighed. “Being away from me this long has made you forgetful, but maybe it’s being away from me this long that has also made you such a mindless slut, needing to be fucked like any good boy needs to be.”

Uri pulled back, leaving only the very tip of his cock inside. The pads of his fingertips dragged down the sensitive underside of Kenny’s shaft. He smirked at how his little slut raised his hips to better accommodate his owner. Certainly out of sight, obscured by the grip of the Titan’s hand, Kenny’s eyes were glazed over, his jaw slack, his fingers curled.

“Say please, sweet pet.”

“Pl-please,” Kenny whispered.

“I’m not certain I heard you.”

“Please, Lord Reiss…!”

Uri moved his free hand to grip Kenny’s hip. His eyes lit up.

“You’ll cum from my cock or not at all. So I want to hear you say ‘please’.”

“Please fuck me, Lord Reiss,” Kenny gasped, sweat rolling down his quivering thighs.

“Good boy.”

The tightening of his grip upon the crest of Kenny’s hip was Uri’s only warning of his movement. Uri threw his weight against Kenny, their damp flesh slapping against the other. Almost as if their bodies had been made for each other, the head of his cock struck the sweet spot, indicated by the flailing of Kenny’s feet and the surprised cry. Uri kept the momentum with each thrust, never letting up, hammering on Kenny’s prostate over and over again. With each passing moment, Kenny’s insides squeezed down harder upon him. The thundering pulse upon Uri’s temples threatened to drown out the whines of his beau. Still, he strained to hear those sweet sounds. Just a moment longer, he thought to himself.

“How close is my good boy to cumming?” he breathed.

“Oh god,” Kenny groaned. “Just touch me… just one touch… please, oh god, touch me…”

“Oh, is that so?” Uri raked the fingernails of his left hand down Kenny’s ass and brought his palm down upon it, the smack ringing through the alleyway. “I told you to cum from my cock, not from my hand. Guess I’ll have to keep going until you do.”

Uri shifted his weight forward onto his toes as he continued to thrust. With this slight modification to his position, the head of his cock rubbed mercilessly upon the sweet spot. His gaze flickered down, watching the desperate flailing of Kenny’s legs, fighting to move at all with his trousers around his knees and ankles. Kenny squeezed down upon him, the sounds of his hard, neglected cock slapping against his belly echoing in Uri’s ears. He could hardly keep his head up any longer, lolling dizzily on his neck, his cornsilk hair falling in his stinging blue eyes.

Uri knew he couldn’t delay the inevitable for much longer, however. Just as he moved to reach around and give the one stroke that would bring Kenny relief, those hot insides clenched down on his shaft. Being taken by surprise, Uri inhaled sharply in that quiet moment before he fell off the edge, as the endorphins collected in a singularity before exploding outward throughout the rest of his body. Without realizing it, he had wrenched his right hand free of the Titan’s fibers, and the crackling of steam drowned out their cries of ecstasy. Still, even with the evaporation of the hand around them, together they dwelled on that plane of euphoria. Finally, when the heat became too much, they separated.

“F-fuck,” Uri gasped as the steam billowed around them. “That was good…”

“Fucking hell, it’s hot.” Kenny struggled to stand as the Titan hand crumbled beneath him. He fumbled to pull up his pants. “Tch, lewd bastard, I can’t believe you did this in the Underground…”

After fixing his trousers, Uri smoothed out his cloak. A blush rose upon his cheeks.

“It’s not like you actually mind that much. After all, no one saw anything.”

“Right.” Kenny fetched his hat, knocked off his head when the Titan hand had taken him in its grasp. The hand itself was but bone now, quickly disintegrating. “I’m sure Levi went back to the house after he took care of those men. He’s probably wondering where I am now.”

“I can’t wait to meet him,” Uri said. He picked up his backpack, scooping up everything that had scattered out of it prior, and slung it across his shoulder. “I mean—meet him more formally.”

“Oh.” Kenny retrieved his knife off the ground and put it away in his coat pocket. “You mean, you planned on staying down here for a visit?”

“Of course.”

Kenny turned slowly on his heels, his face nearly unreadable. “That’s why you’re here? For a visit?”

“Of course.”

Kenny narrowed his eyes. His arms crossed his chest, his shirt damp with sweat and steam clinging to his pectorals. His jaw clenched.

“You left the Capital just a few days ago.”

“Yes. I couldn’t stand to be home alone, so I came to stay for a few days.”

“For a visit?”

Uri wasn’t certain why he didn’t just confess. Perhaps he thought that if he ignored the danger, it might dissipate. His lips pressed together into a tight smile.

“Yes. A visit.”

“Well, how long do you figure you’ll stay?”

“Just a few days. That’s okay, isn’t it? I just wanted to know what it was like down here, and I wanted to meet Levi.”

“Why?” Kenny huffed. “It’s not like I’m bringing him back with me. He doesn’t even know that I’m his…” He shook his head. “Whatever. A few days. That’s as long as you can stay. Then you go home when the week is up.”

“Right.” Uri nodded. “Oh, by the way, your contract expires in less than three weeks—“

“That explains it.” Kenny breathed a relieved sigh and chuckled. “Tch, idiot. Why didn’t you just say that first? You had me worried that your brother had run you off or something.”

“Ha… right.”

Certainly, the truth didn’t matter. After he acquired Kenny’s signature and was ready to return home, he could locate the Military Police aboveground and ask them to send him home. Dawdling for a few days could not have hurt anyone, or so he thought. Sure, Rod Reiss was a sociopath, but it wasn’t like he would ever intentionally harm Uri.

“Let’s go home then,” Kenny said, holding his arm out to him.

Uri laced his arm with Kenny’s and clung to the taller man’s side.

“Okay,” he whispered. “Wherever you are, that’s home.”


	13. Chiaroscuro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenny discovers that Uri's visit isn't just that and confronts Uri about the real reason he has come to the Underground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the last chapter update, I was feeling a bit depressed and decided to work on a bunch of cosplay projects instead. I restyled some wigs for existing cosplays, and I finished cosplays of Kaneki Ken and Yuno Gasai. I bought a new 3DMG harness since Rin (while cosplaying Uri) bumrushed me from behind while I was Kenny and carried me off down the hallway at Ohayocon which popped my leg strap (lewd).
> 
> My next con is Momocon, but it's far enough away that I should easily have time to complete the next chapter (if not two chapters) before then. I think I'm meeting quite a few of you readers there? The engagement party for me and Yules should be happening then, but follow my instagram @caitybelleackeryandere for the updates on what's going down.
> 
> To all you guys who have told me you like to read this fic during class: better be COLLEGE classes :^)

When he had been upon the brink of death, Kenny had appeared as a savior to Levi. The man hadn’t looked like any of Mama’s clients, not any that he had seen at least. He was tall with long legs like Mama before she lay down and never got up again. His gray eyes and raven hair was the same as Mama’s, same as his own. Kenny never said where he came from or why he was there, but his light-golden skin and the glow about him said he was from aboveground. After all, no one from the Underground had that spark in his eyes. Perhaps that was why Levi had gone with him. Then again, it was either that or death.

Mama had always been tender, but Kenny wasn’t like Mama—Levi figured that out quick. When he had taken Levi out of that room, he hadn’t looked at the landlord nor did he say a single word to him. Levi had never left the brothel, and that crazy landlord tried to stop him, saying that Levi belonged to him. Kenny had just smiled and had said he would return him just as soon as he was done with him, leaving the landlord with a gold coin. Levi had been scared, but Kenny had brought him to a tavern down the road and had fed him. Still, Levi had seen the exchange of money and had known what men in the past had expected of Mama when the landlord had taken their money.

After Levi had eaten, Kenny had brought him back to the brothel. When the landlord had demanded another gold coin, Kenny had laughed. Then he had brought his fist back and had pummeled that vile man’s face over and over again, knocking out teeth, breaking his nose, bloodying his knuckles, screaming, crying. “Go to hell, you fuck!” he had bellowed repeatedly, loudly at first and then quieter with each passing minute as the landlord stopped fighting back. Kenny had beaten that man’s face nearly to his death, and all the scarlet ladies had peered out from their rooms and had watched in horror. Levi had been scared at first, but then something had awakened inside of him—he had been happy to see that cruel man’s blood spilled.

After throwing the man on the floor to bleed out, Kenny had wiped his nose on his sleeve, had grabbed a large briefcase from behind the front desk, and had gone into Mama’s room. For two months, Kenny had kept that briefcase with him until he had disappeared for a few days and had returned without it and instead with red marks on his back and chest. Levi had assumed that he had disappeared to the land above. He had wondered then when Kenny would go up there and never return.

Then one day, Kenny came home with another man. He introduced himself as Mr. Reiss, but Kenny called him Uri when he thought Levi wasn’t listening. Mr. Reiss stood only as tall as Kenny’s chest, radiated an overbearing heat that made his skin turn pink, and shined with hair like a halo. Kenny called him his employer, the man who gave him those gold coins, said he killed men for Mr. Reiss, but Kenny looked at him like Mama looked at clients before she got sick. That night, Kenny sent Levi to bed early, but Levi couldn’t sleep for the banging of the headboard from the other bedroom. Levi was a child, but he wasn’t ignorant. Of course, Kenny was like Mama. That night he promised himself to never let anyone touch him. A different blonde man would make him break that promise years later.

On that third night, Levi, upon hearing the headboard again, snuck out of his bedroom and peered through the keyhole. He couldn’t see anything save for the blanket over an entanglement of limbs. He knew he shouldn’t have felt the warmth in his belly when he heard the sounds they made. Ashamed, he returned to bed, but in his dreams he wondered what exactly they did underneath that big blanket. He awoke the next morning in a sweat and swore never to think about it again.

Still, he couldn’t help but dwell upon the idea that Kenny would eventually leave him for this stranger. The thought of being left alone to fend for himself in the darkness of the Underground terrified him. Even more terrifying was the jealousy in his heart that welled up when he answered Kenny’s call to come to breakfast and when he saw Mr. Reiss already at the table with Kenny’s blanket around his shoulders. It was then that he snapped. Levi threw himself down in the floor of the main room and screamed, his short, thin limbs flailing in every direction. Mr. Reiss stood from the table with that perpetually perplexed look on his soft face, but Kenny stormed from the kitchen and hovered over him.

“Get your ass up off the floor, you little monster,” he snapped. “Don’t make me tell you again.”

“Kenny—,” Mr. Reiss started to say, but Kenny shot him a withering glance. He sank back down into his chair.

“I’m not starting this shit,” Kenny huffed. “Get off the floor, and sit your ass down at the goddamn table like a human being—or you can go on to your lessons without any breakfast. It’s your choice, little monster.”

Wiping the tears from his blotchy face, Levi picked himself up off the floor and scooted into a chair at the far end of the table. Grumbling under his breath, Kenny retreated to the kitchen once more before emerging. He threw down a bowl of porridge in front of Levi, and with hateful gray eyes Levi watched as Kenny gently placed another bowl before Mr. Reiss. With a grunt, he plopped down beside the blonde man.

“That wasn’t necessary to call him that,” Mr. Reiss muttered just loudly enough for Levi to pick up the words.

“If you have a problem with how I talk to the child, you can pack up your shit and leave,” Kenny retorted. “It makes no difference to me.”

Levi hadn’t heard Kenny talk like that to his employer before, and Mr. Reiss seemed taken aback as well, as if the comment had come from nowhere. He decided that he didn’t like this side of Kenny at all. He hurried to finish his bowl of porridge while Mr. Reiss sat dumbly and stared at the polished surface of the table. Levi didn’t want to be here when he started to cry. Kenny glanced askew from his own bowl at Mr. Reiss and furrowed his brows.

“Uri, eat your breakfast,” he grumbled. “It’s getting cold.”

At that moment, an ugly sound escaped Mr. Reiss’s lips, and his hands flew to cover his face. Kenny just gazed at him, his lips pressed together tightly, before turning his attention to Levi.

“Levi, child, get your books and head to your lesson.”

Before he had even finished the words, Levi was on his feet. He scurried to gather his books up off the coffee table in front of the couch across the room, threw them in his backpack, and rushed out the door. Kenny wasn’t at all gentle like Mama, but Kenny had never snapped at him out of nowhere like that. Later, when he would return home in the afternoon, however, Levi would find them in bed together, having made up from their spat. He realized then that he would have done anything to get rid of Mr. Reiss, if only to reclaim Kenny’s attention for himself.

 

When the door had shut behind Levi, Kenny stood from his chair at the table and retreated to the kitchen, leaving Uri alone to cry. It should have been himself crying, Kenny thought as he picked up the newspaper from aboveground off the sliver of counter near the wood-burning stove. Grumbling under his breath, he threw the pot, still hot, into the water-filled sink, steam suddenly rising around him. He hoped the neighbors on the other side of the duplex were already awake and had gone to their jobs, because the thin boards between the Ackerman living space and theirs only muffled so much sound. As the steam simmered down, Kenny heard the scraping of a chair and heavy footsteps. He peered out to see Uri, trudging to the bedroom.

“Sit your ass back down,” he said harsher than he had meant. “You have some explaining to do.”

“You told me to leave if I didn’t like how you talked to that poor child,” Uri sobbed, his arm draped firmly across his eyes. He blindly stumbled into the corner of the couch. “So I’m leaving.”

“ _That poor child!_ The same _poor child_ who slit the throats of men whose minds you twisted beyond repair.” Kenny threw his hands up in the air in a grand gesture. “You know it’s not possible for you to leave.”

“I can leave whenever the hell I want.”

“Uri.” Grabbing the newspaper, Kenny stormed over to the other man in the center of the drab main room. He held it up in front of his face. “You _know_ that’s not possible.”

Uri’s teary eyes flickered to the page, the blue orbs blowing wide. He sank weakly onto the bleached, futilely scrubbed floor. Kenny hovered over him, his shadow eclipsing the Titan King.

“Did you read it?” Kenny shook his head. “It says here… _Kenny the Ripper absconds with the younger Lord Reiss._ Do I need to explain what that means?”

Uri didn’t answer. Kenny lowered his gaze to the paper.

“ _A week ago, Lord Uri Reiss as well as a large sum of money from his safe disappeared from his home near Ovud District. His paramour, Kenny Ackerman, the infamous murderer of Military Police, allegedly disappeared three months ago while still contracted as the reclusive lord’s valet. The elder Lord Reiss dissolved the contract in his absence. Upon learning that the Military Police would pursue him again for his crimes, Mr. Ackerman abducted his former employer. Their whereabouts are currently unknown but they are suspected to still be within Wall Sina._ Now… Uri, please tell me this is an elaborate joke.”

Uri stared down at his delicate hands, his eyes turning to black. Kenny grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and wrenched him to his feet.

“Goddammit, Uri, don’t you dare try to escape to that place I can’t go,” he begged, angry tears streaming down his cheeks. “Look at me.”

Uri’s gaze settled on the top button of Kenny’s shirt. His mouth fell agape, his tongue lolling out between his teeth.

“Goddammit! I said _look at me!_ ”

Uri could hear him. He knew that by the way he flinched. Kenny knew him too well to believe that Uri’s mind was out of reach. Kenny grasped his chin and bent his neck up to peer directly into that avoidant gaze.

“Is this revenge for leaving you?” he demanded. “Is this how you planned to get back at me for breaking your heart? It suits your cruelty—“

“It’s not true,” Uri finally gasped. “I swear, Kenny, it’s not true. That paper is filled with lies. It’s a story of Rod’s creation. I didn’t know… I didn’t know he would do this! I swear!”

“Then tell me the truth!” Kenny roared, his face only centimeters from Uri’s now. “Because I swear to God, if you endangered my sister’s child and his chance to be free from the curse of his name, I don’t know what the fuck I’ll do.”

“I’m so sorry, Kenny,” Uri wept between ragged gulps of air. “I know what Rod did to you. I knew all along in the back of my head, but I didn’t want to be right. Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Kenny, I’m so sorry…”

The cold suddenly took Kenny. His heart froze, and his eyes turned to ice. He curled his lip and chuckled bitterly.

“I did my best to forget,” he whispered. “Really, it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I’m strong in that way.”

“If I had just been honest, you wouldn’t have gone to him to learn of everything I had been keeping from you.” Uri bowed his head, but still he couldn’t silence his sobs. “Oh god, why couldn’t I have been honest then? Why couldn’t I have been honest now? Oh god, I’ll be the death of you.”

Kenny surprised himself by letting out a gross sob himself. “I should have been honest too,” he cried. “I should have told you everything. I shouldn’t have kept it from you. I just didn’t want you to hurt. I wanted to be strong for you.” He wiped his cheek on his shoulder in a futile effort to halt his tears. “So you confronted Rod, and then…?”

“I let my guard down, and he overpowered me. He tied me up in the basement, but I managed to get away.” He glanced down at his hand. “I severed my own wrist and then waited for it to grow back so that I could escape. He intended to keep me there until the contract had expired so he could legitimately pursue you. I guess I fucked up by thinking he wouldn’t accuse you of kidnapping me.”

“He wanted my contract to lapse so that he could have me killed, huh? I guess I was in the way of his ability to completely manipulate you. You were starting to get wise to his scheming.”

“Yeah… that sounds about right. I was starting to think for myself because of you.” Uri slipped from Kenny’s grasp and leaned against the wall. “The Interior Brigade are probably the ones in charge of the investigation.”

“The Interior Brigade, Rod’s own militia,” Kenny sighed. “Yes, I have seen them in passing. To hear the rumors, they resent me for doing jobs they can’t do on their own.” He shook his head. “You should have just killed him.”

“What?” Uri’s heart dropped. “I couldn’t… I couldn’t kill my brother. He runs the government. What would we do without him?”

“You could run the government instead. You _are_ the king.”

“No… I couldn’t.” Uri crossed his arms and hugged himself. “I cannot simply damn my family. This curse…” Suddenly, his eyes lit up. “This curse… I can use this curse to restore your name to its former glory!”

“What the hell are you going on about…?”

“The first king,” Uri gasped, “wiped everyone’s memories inside of the walls in one fell swoop—“

“Except for the Ackermans and the Asians,” Kenny interrupted. He backed up a step. “Are you thinking of manipulating everyone’s memories en masse…?”

“That would be my last resort.” Uri rubbed his pink lips together. “I think… I think maybe if I went to the Military Police, I could explain to them what has happened. I could tell them the truth. They wouldn’t harm me.”

“Do you think you should do it?”

“I think if maybe I explain the situation, then everyone will know what really happened,” he said. “Of course, I can’t say that my own brother held me hostage, but I can just say that I went with you of my own free will and I returned of my own free will. I think they may be reasonable enough to hear what I have to say.”

“The Military Police itself, yes, perhaps,” Kenny said quietly, “but don’t expect the Interior Brigade to have any ounce of kindness.”

“But if I do this, there’s just one thing I want to ask of you.”

Kenny glanced down at Uri. For a moment, he studied the blonde man’s face, how his blotchy cheeks swelled up, how the nostrils of his slightly upturned nose flared, how the dimples at the corners of his mouth seemed to deepen. Kenny hooked his thumbs in the loops of his trousers and shrugged.

“Go ahead. Ask me.”

“I want you to spend the rest of your life with me.”

Kenny shifted his gaze to the blank wall. “How are either of us supposed to know that’s what you’ll want in the long term? The rest of my life—well, however long that is…”

“I know… I know. It’s rash and I can’t help myself. It’s too much to ask—all of your life—but I swear, in return I’ll give you anything you could ever want.” Uri couldn’t look back at him in that moment, fearful of the evident truth in those gray eyes. “So tell me what you want.”

Kenny shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “I can’t have what I really want. I want to grow old with you, to die before you. I want a life where I can gladly look forward to the end, when you’re kissing me and telling me you’ll see me in the next life just as I close my eyes for the last time. I want you to be the last thing I see.” He bowed his head and curled his lip bitterly. “I guess I’ll have to settle for only staying by your side until your untimely, unfair death. Fuck what I want.”

“Kenny…”

“You know what I’m saying, right?” Suddenly his hands were out of his pockets and on Uri’s face, pulling him just short of his lips. “I don’t want anything. Just let me give you my life.”

Uri tried to speak, but even if he had the words, they were lost upon the coalescence of their hot lips. Kenny balled his fists up in Uri’s shirt and pulled himself flush against the other man. Already, Kenny’s heart thundered in his chest, his pulse pounded in his head, and his hips ached. The trembling of Uri’s bottom lip against his mouth urged his hands onward, unbuttoning shirts and trousers. Not even moments later, Kenny bent over the arm of the couch with his pants tugged down to his knees. For a split second, Uri panicked.

“I should get some lube.”

“Goddammit, Uri, just fucking spit on it.” Kenny shot a smoldering glance over his shoulder, his face nearly as red as his erection. “Hurry…”

Uri dragged his tongue over his palm and spread his saliva over his own cock. He probably should have been gentler, but Kenny thought he did well to hold himself back as long as he did. He cried out when Uri grasped his hips and pushed in all the way to the root. When Kenny crumpled over the sofa, Uri gripped his hair and pulled him upright, prompting a sharp breath. Uri’s other hand wrapped itself around that thudding, dripping cock that rightfully belonged to him and only him.

“God, I fucking love you,” Uri whispered breathlessly.

With his face pressed to Kenny’s back, his teeth scraping against one protruding scapula, his hips moved to the rhythm of his hand, pumping Kenny’s cock. Uri tried to be quiet at first, but Kenny didn’t care if the residents on the opposite side of the duplex heard his needy moans. To be fair, he mused, who in their right mind would confront Kenny the Ripper about the loud fucking on the other side of the wall? His breath caught in his throat when a shudder rolled down his spine. It wasn’t like he was going to last long at this rate, and neither would Uri.

“Oh god, I’m gonna cum,” Kenny gasped.

“Go ahead,” Uri grunted. “I can’t wait any longer either…”

Uri held tight to Kenny as his hips moved as quickly as they could, forcing both of them over the edge. When his burning, twitching insides clenched down on Uri, prompting the ecstatic gasping of his partner in his ear, relief washed over him, the hot spurt of cum rolling over Uri’s hand. With a final thrust of his hips, Uri buried his seed deep inside his beau and collapsed against his sweat-slicked back. For a long moment, they hunched over the couch, panting and shuddering.

“I’m sorry,” Uri muttered, “but I couldn’t stop myself.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

“Right… sorry.”

“Tch.”

Against his back, Kenny felt Uri move upright. He glanced over his shoulder to see the smaller man, fixing his clothes.

“I guess I should sort out this mess I created,” Uri muttered, stuffing the tails of his shirt into his trousers. “I haven’t really seen any MPs in the Underground, but once I go aboveground there should be an outpost not too far away.”

For a moment, Kenny watched, dumbfounded, as Uri trudged into the bedroom, muttering to himself. Snatching his trousers up from around his knees and fixing them as he waddled, he intercepted his wandering beau with an arm around his waist. Uri glanced up at him from packing his backpack, already on the bed.

“What is it, Kenny?”

“You can’t just leave,” he stuttered, shaking slightly.

Uri blinked. “I’ll be fine.”

“N-no, I’m not saying that…” A scarlet flush reached Kenny’s cheeks. “I mean… aren’t you allegedly my captive right now?”

For a moment, Uri stared blankly at him, and then he laughed. Kenny wasn’t certain why Uri’s reaction pissed him off so much until he spoke.

“Normally I would appreciate the attempt to initiate a scene, but I don’t think you could successfully pull off being a captor in a sexy way.” Uri buckled his backpack shut, tossed it over his shoulder, and pushed past Kenny on his way out of the bedroom and to the front door. “You’re already embarrassed just trying to say what you’ve said so far. Perhaps when we get home we could explore that sort of scene?”

When Uri was just a few paces from the door, Kenny finally snapped out of his stupor. In just a moment, his hands were upon that tiny waist. Uri yelped when Kenny threw him over his shoulder. Kenny’s heart thundered in tandem with the pounding of small fists on his shoulder blades.

“Kenny!” Uri huffed, taken aback. “Set me down right now. You know better than to—oof!” His words were lost when Kenny plopped him down on the sofa in the main room. When Kenny straddled his lap, Uri scowled at him. “Kenny—“

Kenny framed his face in his hands. Silently, he pleaded with gray eyes. Finally, Uri sighed.

“Fine,” he muttered. “I guess it serves me right for trying to leave immediately after digging in your ass.” A smirk slithered onto his lips. “Go ahead and get something fun for us to do. I’ll wait for you.”

“You’ll be glad you stayed,” Kenny muttered, kissing him gently, as he rose to his feet.

“Oh, I’m certain I will be.”

In the kitchen, Kenny gathered ice from the icebox and set it and a knife in a bowl together, and he briefly ducked into the bedroom to retrieve a jar of lube. Still, he didn’t notice that Uri had disappeared until after he had set everything down upon the coffee table beside the couch. When he finally turned to the couch and noticed his absence, Kenny’s heart dropped out of his chest. His gaze darted around the room, searching desperately for his partner.

“Uri…?”

Kenny heard a commotion, and he rushed into the small kitchen. He didn’t see anyone there, but he saw that the window over the counter had been opened. With a shudder, he glanced out the window—had Uri really been so eager to return to clear his name to escape this way? Still, he didn’t see anything outside but the bleak, dark street. As he moved to close the window, suddenly Uri emerged from the pantry, and a flash of silver passed before Kenny’s eyes. Dumbly, he stared down at his wrists, handcuffed to the window latch. With a smirk, Uri spun the key around his fingertip. His eyes dragged down Kenny’s body, awkwardly bent over the countertop.

“I admire your enthusiasm,” he said, “but like I said, it’s very difficult to pull off an effective scene. After all this time, you still handle me like I’ll break, and well… that just doesn’t work for me.”

Kenny gritted his teeth and tested the strength of the window latch. It didn’t budge any way but outward, which didn’t help his current predicament. He shot a withering glare over his shoulder at Uri.

“How the hell did you manage to get in here so quickly?”

Uri sighed. “If I managed to get free from my brother’s ensnarement, then all I needed was for you to turn your back for just a moment.” He chuckled quietly. “I guess I was right that I should pack some handcuffs just in case.”

“How did you…?”

“You left my backpack right in front of the door, you know.” He nodded toward where his backpack was now on the sliver of countertop beside the icebox to Kenny’s right.

“Fuck.”

“Now,” Uri muttered, “you need to be punished for your little stunt, and I have the perfect idea for that.” He turned to the cabinet and pulled out the copper mugs from within. He placed each with the open end down upon the countertop. He jiggled the keys before tossing them beneath one of the mugs. “Now, I’ll leave it entirely up to chance how long this lasts. If you successfully guess which one the keys are beneath, then I’ll give you release in more ways than one. However, if you fail, then there will be no such release.”

Kenny furrowed his brow as a blush rose to his cheeks. “You bastard,” he said with a nervous grin, “there’re eight mugs there. How the hell am I supposed to guess correctly?”

“Well, like I said, you’ll just have to keep guessing.” Uri crossed toward the threshold of the kitchen. “Anyway, I thought I saw you had something very interesting…”

“W-wait, Uri…!”

Uri left but soon returned with the things Kenny had left upon the coffee table: the bowl of ice, his knife, and the jar of lube. Kenny squirmed when Uri picked up the knife and cut away his shirt before tugging his pants down to his wobbling knees. His neck ached from craning his head to look over his shoulder, but he couldn’t bring himself to tear his gaze from the other man. Whistling quietly, Uri set aside the knife, fished around in his backpack, and retrieved a paddle hairbrush. Kenny stiffened.

“Aren’t you going to let me guess where you put the keys first?”

“I have to punish you first—at least a little bit,” Uri said, flashing a grin, as he stepped to Kenny’s side. With a firm grip upon the silver-coated handle of the hairbrush, he placed it gently against Kenny’s exposed ass, cold against his hot flesh. “So lewd… if you didn’t want to be spanked, you wouldn’t have left yourself open like this.”

Kenny opened his mouth to protest, but Uri brought his arm back and connected hard with the fleshy part of his ass. He gasped loudly as the pain shot through him and then quickly dissipated into a shudder as the endorphins kicked in almost immediately. With a groan, he leaned against his arms, tugging against the relentless handcuffs.

“I know we’ve had a bit of a break from our more formal arrangement,” Uri continued as he set the hairbrush upon the bowl of ice, “but you should still attempt to use the etiquette that I taught you not so long ago. Now, once you start talking to me properly, I’ll give you a chance to get that release. For now, however… you’ve been such a bad boy. The Underground has given you such bad manners. I expect you to correct that immediately. Do I need to remind you how to speak to me?”

_You’ve been such a bad boy_. Kenny had never expected it to bother him, but the words made him sick to his stomach as much as they had the first time he had been told that. Shame overwhelmed him, chilled him to the bone. Almost as if Uri had flicked a switch deep down inside of him, he slipped more firmly into subspace. He hung his head down between his extended arms.

“No, Lord Reiss,” he whispered.

“That’s a bit better,” Uri grumbled, “but you’ll have to continue to do better. For being so insubordinate, you’ll have to take this punishment with grace. Understood?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss…”

When he heard the tinkling of the ice as Uri picked up the hairbrush, Kenny tried his best to keep his gaze trained upon the window before him. In it, he could faintly see Uri’s distorted reflection although he was unable to see his dominant hand that undoubtedly clutched the hairbrush. He felt the brush of cold metal up the insides of his thighs, and it took all of his willpower to hold still, his thighs instinctively struggling against their unspoken command to not move. With the makeshift paddle, Uri kneaded circles into the fleshiest part of his ass, the chill enough to make his hips shudder in anticipation of the punishment yet to come. Uri’s free hand touched Kenny’s back and trailed down until it came to rest on his tailbone.

“So cute, trying to hold still,” he cooed. “You want to be punished, don’t you?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss…”

“Why is that?”

Just as Kenny opened his mouth to respond, he felt the light tap of silver on his butt. He flinched slightly.

“Because you’re my owner, and I’m your pet.”

“Yes, but that wasn’t quite what I wanted to hear.”

Without further warning, Uri flicked his wrist and snapped the paddle sharply against his ass. Kenny cried out in surprise.

“Because I’m Lord Reiss’s little slut.”

Uri brought the paddle down hard again one more time before breaking the sharp strikes with gentle tapping. The metal of the hairbrush was still cold, providing a contrast to the warmth of his flesh. Kenny pressed his forehead to his forearms, clenched his jaw, and inhaled through his nose. The window shook a bit from the jiggling of the handcuffs upon his shaking wrists.

“Good boy,” Uri said through the smirk upon his lips. “I don’t even have to remind you. After two years, that’s all you are anymore, after all…”

Without another word, Uri snapped the paddle against Kenny’s ass, red and tender, and flicked his wrist back and forth, each movement marked by the staccato slapping of flesh. The all-too-familiar stinging sensation, in spite of the absence of recent punishment or discipline, radiated from the area of impact, up his spine and down the insides of his thighs. Keeping up the intensity, Uri trailed his free hand around Kenny’s hip and trailed his fingertips down the Pavlovian erection. A smirk reached his lips.

“Good boy,” he whispered. “So hard already… My little slut loves to be punished. Isn’t that so?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss,” Kenny huffed. He arched his back, pushing his hips up to meet the relentless paddle. “I need to be punished more…”

Uri suddenly gripped Kenny’s dark hair and wrenched his head back. “Such a slut for pain,” he muttered. “Of course, you need to be punished. My work is never finished…”

Uri drove the paddle more forcefully against Kenny’s ass, the sting bringing tears to Kenny’s eyes. Kenny sucked in a sharp inhale and let it out in a moan. The shockwaves rolled down his legs and to the very tip of his cock, spilling over with precum. Each impact after seemed more intense, but Kenny stilled his writhing hips. Redness like that upon his ass spread across his swollen cheeks, his gray eyes glossy with need.

“More,” he gasped. “Harder. Faster.”

With fingers entwined in Kenny’s hair, Uri tugged firmly. “Only if you beg,” he chuckled, “and then I’ll fulfill my little slut’s needs.”

“I want to be punished,” Kenny moaned. “Please, Lord Reiss, punish me more…”

“I can’t hear you,” Uri said. The slap of the makeshift paddle against Kenny’s ass drowned out all else. “You’ll have to speak louder. I want to hear your voice.”

“Please, Lord Reiss!” If Kenny had still feared someone might hear from the other side of the duplex, now all unnecessary thoughts—those not of his owner or of his owner’s wishes—dissipated completely. Without shame, he called out loudly over the smacking of flesh. “I want to be punished! Please, Lord Reiss!”

“Good boy,” Uri said in the split second between smacks.

_Good boy_. Kenny sucked in a ragged gasp. The sudden release of endorphins flooded his brain, transmuting his pain into waves of euphoria that filled his body. Each swat upon his ass crescendoed in intensity until Uri brought the hairbrush down as hard as he could. With each strike, a renewed wave of endorphins intoxicated Kenny’s senses, leaving him glass-eyed and mindless. Perhaps once his body might have succumbed to the pain, but now he relished it, his shuddering spine arching into the swats, offering more even when there was no more to give.

“Thank you, Lord Reiss,” he breathlessly whimpered.

“ _Good boy_ ,” Uri cooed, pulling the paddle back after one last smack. Even in the distorted reflection of the window, Kenny could see his delighted grin. He set aside the hairbrush to rest atop the bowl of ice and stepped back toward the opposite countertop. His fingertips grazed the upside down mugs set there. “Since you’ve been so gracious of your punishment, I’ll allow you to guess under which mug the key to your release might be.”

Kenny craned his head and glanced over his shoulder. The absence of the paddle allowed the throbbing upon his ass to make itself known, warmth spreading down the backs of his thighs. He swallowed.

“Ahhh…” His eyes darted across the copper mugs. “Second row, to the right.”

Uri picked up the designated mug—nothing. Nonchalantly, he dropped it onto the floor while staring blatantly at Kenny, daring him to chastise him for purposely making a mess. Kenny held still, the copper mug rolled across the floor and out of sight. Uri laughed.

“Very good,” he said. “Allow me to proceed as planned. Onto the next phase of your punishment.” He stepped over and pushed down on the back of Kenny’s head. “Head down, between your arms. Stay perfectly still.” Curling his lip, he raked his fingernails down Kenny’s back and to his ass before pulling back completely again. “Focus on yourself, and concentrate on my touch.”

Kenny stared down at the countertop beneath his torso, unable to see Uri behind him. His muscles tensed in anticipation of the touch soon to be upon his flesh, whatever form that touch decided to take. The pause allowed him to focus upon the flushed welts upon his ass, the stinging pain having dissipated into euphoria amidst the endorphins. He sucked in a sharp breath when he felt the soft graze of fingertips upon his hips, trailing down the outsides and then the insides of his thighs, and to the creases of his hip joints. For a moment that touch lingered there until finally it drifted to the swollen, dripping cock, his hand closing around the shaft. The position into which Uri had put Kenny forced him to watch as his cock was teased.

“What a dirty little slut you are,” Uri whispered, leaning into Kenny’s back. He struggled upon his tiptoes and nipped at Kenny’s shoulder blade. His grip tightened upon Kenny, hardening beneath his grip. “Isn’t that right—you’re Lord Reiss’s dirty little slut, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Kenny breathed, “I’m Lord Reiss’s dirty little slut.”

“You’re so eager to tell me, which makes me very happy.” With a firm stroke, Uri caressed down the shaft and up again. “But I really want the whole world to know…”

“Ahhh…” Kenny’s belly twisted up in knots in spite of the growing warmth. Renewed scarlet bloomed upon his cheeks. “Yes, Lord Reiss.”

“Your hands are already upon the window latch,” Uri continued, his hand moving faster up and down the length of Kenny’s thundering cock. “Please open the window and say what the world should know.”

Suppressing a huff, Kenny pushed on the latch, cracking open the window to which he had been handcuffed. “I’m Lord Reiss’s dirty little slut,” he muttered.

“You know that’s not good enough.” Uri sank his teeth into Kenny’s shoulder blade with enough force to bring pinpricks of blood to the surface, prompting a surprised cry. “Louder. How is the world supposed to hear a whisper?”

“Yellow,” Kenny uttered and rose up his head. Uri paused a moment before continuing.

“Close the window,” he said, “and then repeat it louder.”

Kenny tugged on the latch and closed the window. He lowered his head once more between his arms. “I’m Lord Reiss’s dirty little slut!” he called out. He gasped when Uri’s hand upon him slowed its pumping. “I’m Lord Reiss’s dirty little slut!” he moaned.

Uri dragged his fingers lightly up the underside of the thundering length, pausing to gently tease the sensitive spot just beneath the head. Kenny moaned and writhed in response, his hips bucking against the touch. Uri’s fingertips collected the precum that spilled over from the slit, and he pulled his hand away. Kenny glanced over his shoulder just in time to watch Uri, lapping at his fingers. Uri then tapped upon the seven remaining mugs on the opposite counter.

“Very good boy. I would say you’ve earned a second chance at your release. Go ahead and choose,” he said. “Which one…?”

“Second row, to the left.”

Uri grasped the designated mug and paused. After a moment, he finally lifted it to show nothing beneath. Carelessly he tossed it onto the floor to join the first mug, to wherever it had rolled away.

“Because I feel so sorry for you with those big eyes, I’ll let you have another shot,” he said.

“First row, to the right.”

This time, Uri more blatantly knocked it off the counter, again revealing nothing. Kenny squirmed when he saw the grin upon Uri’s face.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” he sighed. “I suppose I’m forced to keep you like this.”

Then there was an abrupt knock upon the front door. For a moment, they both panicked.

“Is Levi back already?” Uri asked.

“No, he wouldn’t knock,” Kenny muttered. With a sheepish smirk, he glanced over his shoulder. “I guess you’ll have to let me go—wait, Uri!”

Before he had finished the words, Uri left to answer the door. After a brief exchange, he returned with two milk bottles. Kenny laughed nervously.

“Oh, right,” he said, “I guess it was the milk man’s day to come.”

“Good thing I didn’t leave you here, horny and alone,” Uri chuckled. “You might have gone to town on him.”

“H-hey, I’m not some neglected, bored housewife.”

“Oh, that’s an idea… Remind me to order you some cute clothes to roleplay that when we get home.” Uri set the milk bottles in the icebox to Kenny’s right. “What do you figure, light blue or pink?”

Kenny furrowed his brow. “You’re really pushing it, pervert.”

“Am I? Heh… you’ll warm up to it.” Uri’s focus lingered upon the empty milk bottles upon the counter to the side of the icebox for a moment. “Anyway, let’s continue what we had going on.” He frowned at Kenny’s withered erection. “I’ll have to fix that first. Head down, pet.”

Inhaling sharply, Kenny lowered his head between his arms again. With the encouragement from Uri’s touch, it wasn’t long until his cock returned to life. A moment later, he was once more a panting, blushing mess, and still Uri continued. Just as Kenny thought he might be pushed over the edge, Uri stopped, although his fingers lingered upon the tip, leaking on his fingertips.

“If my little slut had his way, you would have me stroke your needy cock to orgasm all the time,” he laughed. “But I love when you cum from your ass when I’m fucking you. Don’t you want me to give you your release that way?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss.” Kenny wriggled his hips. “Please, fuck me.”

“Ha, nice try. You haven’t located the key yet, cockslut. Even during a punishment, you try to get your way.” Uri paused and pulled back his hand. “Yet, I am quite horny…”

When Kenny heard the opening of the jar of lube, his pulse thundered in both heads. Upon the faint noise of the cold slicking of Uri’s hot erection, he couldn’t help but arch his back and offer up his hips. Still, when Uri stepped behind him, he was still too short to reach him. He gripped Kenny’s hips.

“Squeeze your thighs together.”

“Ahhh, there is a stepstool over there…”

“I saw. Please squeeze your thighs together.”

Kenny acquiesced to Uri’s demand, and Uri pressed himself between Kenny’s thighs. When he saw the head of the cock, peeking between his legs, he gasped.

“Are you planning to use my thighs…?”

“If you were on your back, I would have used those tits,” Uri muttered, his grasp tightening upon Kenny. “I admire your thighs as well, so I figured I might feel them shake while fucking them.”

“A-ahhh,” Kenny gasped, his cheeks swelling with heat, “th-that’s lewd.”

“It’s very lewd,” Uri murmured in agreement. His fingernails dug into the taut flesh of Kenny’s hips. “Poor cockslut, so desperate to be fucked properly… Trying so hard not to shake…”

Almost as soon as Uri had mentioned it, Kenny’s attention snapped to his own body. From either weariness or arousal, his thighs shuddered and squeezed together as Uri used them for his own gratification, and the wobbling of his knees only increased the intensity of the experience. The thrusting of Uri’s hips now matched the movement of his usual thrusts inside of him, and his trained insides lit up in expectation of the cock to which he belonged. His own neglected cock, still spilling over in anticipation of the touch that would eventually set him free, bobbed up and down in tandem to the rocking of his hips. Between his legs, he felt the heat of Uri’s thundering erection, his own nerves lighting up and forcing shudders to take his body. Uri’s firm grip entwined itself in Kenny’s raven locks, and he stood on tiptoes to whisper in Kenny’s ear.

“You feel so good, like every part of you was made to be fucked by me,” he said, his breath hot and staccato. “If you keep up like that, I’ll definitely cum.”

“Please cum,” Kenny panted. “I want you to cum.”

“Just a want?” Uri tugged hard on Kenny’s hair. The pain in his neck, craned back, released a new wave of endorphins. “Tell me what I really want to hear.”

“Ahhh, Lord Reiss, please, I need you to cum…”

“Where does my little cumslut need it?”

“Wherever Lord Reiss pleases it…”

“Wherever I please it?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss… Everything belongs to Lord Reiss.”

“Ah, I see, but that’s not what I asked.”

Suddenly, Uri tightened his grip upon Kenny’s hair, pulled back his other hand, and brought it down hard on Kenny’s ass. Kenny sucked in a sharp breath, tears stinging in his gray orbs, as the smack rang throughout the kitchen. Uri raked his fingernails down the tender flesh while his hips worked tirelessly.

“Good boys are specific when asked a direct question,” he huffed. “Don’t you want to be a good boy?”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss,” was the whimpered response.

“Then answer me—where does my cumslut need it?”

“My ass…”

“What about your ass?”

“Please cum on my ass!”

“Ahhh, good boy…” Uri pressed his forehead between Kenny’s scapulae. His thrusting was more urgent, the heat and pulse between Kenny’s legs growing with each passing second. His voice, just moments ago strong and confident, had been reduced to moans. “Such a good boy… a-ahhh, I’m going to cum…”

When Uri pulled back from him, Kenny heard a sharp inhalation and felt the hot eruption upon his tender rump. He himself was but a touch from going over that edge too, and his hips bucked in frustration. Uri collapsed with a satisfied moan against the opposite countertop. Dizzily, he dragged his slender fingers through his sweat-drenched platinum fringe. His gaze lingered upon the ass he had just marked, his seed dripping down the delectable curves of Kenny’s muscle.

“You behave so well,” he muttered. His lips twisted into a smirk. Quickly he fixed his trousers before spinning toward the remaining mugs nearby. “You know what? I’m feeling a bit generous. I’ll let you choose four this time. You just look so desperate for my cock, and honestly I’m just too kind a man to leave you in such a pitiable state.”

However, even after picking four, the keys were nowhere to be found. The lone standing mug mocked Kenny and his desperate need to get off from its place upon the countertop. While Uri turned his back and kicked each mug out of his way and out of the kitchen, Kenny managed to grind against the cool countertop, but just when he thought he could get away with it, Uri’s attention turned to him once more. Uri snatched up the hairbrush and pummeled Kenny’s ass relentlessly, those bucking hips frozen with the stinging pain that overtook him once more. He clicked his tongue in disapproval.

“You know very well that isn’t allowed,” he snapped. “Turn around and prop that ass up on the counter.”

Awkwardly, Kenny turned to face him as he had asked, sitting upon the edge of the counter so that his elbows bent behind his head and his hands folded together behind the nape of his neck. Uri coaxed Kenny’s thighs apart and ushered him to stay still. In spite of the command, he quivered. A cruel smirk slithered upon Uri’s face.

“You’re so cute when you can’t control yourself any longer,” he said, “but I told you that you can only cum from my cock. I’ll have to be stricter during this last phase of your punishment.”

Kenny wasn’t exactly certain what Uri meant. In the corner of his eye, he watched Uri as he picked up the empty milk bottle by the icebox and unscrewed the top. Kenny thought it odd when Uri dipped his finger in the jar of lubricant and liberally slathered the inside of the neck. Then, when he turned to Kenny, his smirk had transformed into a grin.

“I want to try something.”

“Wh-what…?” Kenny instinctively tensed up, his nerves now on edge. “What do you mean?”

Lightly, Uri grasped the base of Kenny’s swollen cock. “Hold still,” he said as his other hand guided the bottle down the length. The neck rested snugly against the root while the rest of the glass ballooned outward, leaving the rest of the shaft and head untouched. Kenny gasped raggedly, his gray eyes blowing wide.

“What if that gets stuck?”

“That’s why I put a bit of slip,” Uri answered with a wink. “Besides… I could always break it. That might be exciting.”

“Pl-please don’t break it,” Kenny stuttered.

“Then be a good boy. Understood?”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss.”

Uri turned for just a moment to nudge the stepstool on the floor between Kenny’s legs so he stood tall enough to easily reach Kenny’s lips with his own. His hands skidded up the insides of those quivering thighs, along the ticklish hip joints, and along the slight curve of the waist. With his gaze, he devoured his captive beau.

“What a great position,” he said quietly. “It’s perfect for me to watch your face and cock as I tease you, and you’re forced to watch as your body is tormented.” His lip curled. “Keep your eyes on your helpless cock. Know that only I can give you release.”

Kenny did as he was told, his glassy gaze locked upon his own cock. The firm grip of the milk bottle against the base, squeezing very lightly, only helped to preserve his arousal. His precum, very nearly pouring from the slit, had already accumulated within the bottle, the glass streaked along the underside where it had collected. Uri trailed his touch from Kenny’s waist and to the entrapment. With a smirk, he tapped the glass.

“Maybe I’ll actually have to get something like this made for you,” he muttered. “I can already see you, your cock trapped like this while you’re bound and gagged on my desk as I do paperwork…”

Kenny’s focus flickered to Uri’s fingers without realizing as they trailed up his abdominals and to his pectorals. With his hands, Uri framed the thick muscle and jiggled it slightly. He leaned forward over Kenny and pressed his lips to the jutting collarbone, his blue stare never breaking from his fingers, the same as Kenny’s vision. The tips of his index fingers dragged laborious circles around the hard flush nipples. Instinctively, Kenny would have tried to pull away, but instead he pushed into the touch. Uri hummed his amusement.

“Your body right now would make a gorgeous painting,” he said. His fingertips flicked across the hard nubbins, testing Kenny’s resolve to stay still. With a quiet simpering laugh, Uri leaned in close, dragged his tongue along the curve of Kenny’s left pectoral, and swirled it around the nipple. His hand lightly teased the other, alternating between quick flicks and lingering touches. When Uri shifted his hips, he nudged the milk bottle, only heightening Kenny’s awareness of how desperate he was for release. Still, Kenny restrained his voice, letting out small whimpers, gradually crescendoing to needier moans. Pulling his mouth back, Uri clutched Kenny’s shoulders and pulled himself upon the countertop, his thighs beneath Kenny’s and their crotches flush against each other. Breathlessly, he nuzzled Kenny’s sternum.

“What’s wrong, Lord Reiss?” Kenny muttered. “You look like you can hardly hold yourself back.”

“Heh, you may be right,” Uri gasped. When he reached down and unbuttoned his pants, his reinvigorated cock sprung free and smacked against the milk bottle, the reverberation of the movement filling Kenny’s belly and thighs. “Just a little bit longer, and I’ll be just as helpless to my desires as you are now.”

A grin crept across Kenny’s swollen cheeks. “Y-you want to fuck me, don’t you? I can’t wait to ride Lord Reiss’s cock… so why not just go ahead and do it?”

Uri snickered with his lips against Kenny’s chest. “Ah, you promise only to cum from being fucked by my cock?”

“Y-yes, of course.” Kenny grinned sheepishly, although his eyes remained glazed. “Pl-please… fuck me.”

Glancing down at the bowl of ice to his right, Uri picked up a small block of ice and popped it into his mouth. For a moment, he seemed to ponder Kenny’s words as he sucked on the ice. Then he leaned once more into Kenny’s chest and lapped at his flesh. The cold of his tongue forced a shudder down Kenny’s spine, and Kenny let out a breathless gasp. Uri brushed his lips across the stiff nipples, the ice between his clenched teeth. So close to the cold, Kenny moaned loudly and bucked his hips, his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Uri sucked the ice into his cheek and continued to lavish attention upon the perky nipples with his tongue. With each passing moment, Kenny’s voice only became louder until the entire kitchen seemed to shake with his over stimulated body.

Just when he thought perhaps he couldn’t take any more, Kenny felt the prod of lubed fingertips upon his entrance. Eagerly he swallowed the fingers, but it still wasn’t enough for his hungry hole. Kenny rocked his hips against the thrusts of the fingers, enough so that his movement opened and closed the window to which he had been handcuffed. Upon the finger pads’ locating of his sweet spot, he very nearly screamed. Uri raised his eyebrows and flashed a brilliant grin.

“That’s the noise I wanted to hear,” he cooed. “Please, let me hear that beautiful voice.”

Uri curled his fingers, and spots appeared in Kenny’s vision. Kenny furrowed his brow, gritted his teeth, and stifled his moans. His insides were dangerously sensitive now, squeezing tightly around the fingers that could easily send him over the edge. When Uri’s attention didn’t waver from the spot, desperation climbed in his belly. Throwing his head back, he cried out once more.

“Oh god, st-stop,” he moaned. “St-stop before your fingers make me cum…!”

“Oh, is that so?” Uri licked his lips. His eyes lit up with delight. “You only want to cum from my cock?”

“Yes!”

“Heh… how could I resist that sweet voice? I really am just as helpless to desire as you.”

When Uri pulled his fingers back, Kenny sucked in a sharp gasp. He watched hungrily as his partner prepared his cock with lubricant, the anticipation of being fucked overtaking his mind. Finally, when Uri was ready, he shifted his legs beneath Kenny, lifted up Kenny’s hips, and lined himself up with the entrance. Being admittedly somewhat of an impatient bastard, Kenny threw his hips down upon Uri’s lap, taking Uri’s length down the root. Uri’s eyes blew wide, and, clutching Kenny’s waist, he inhaled deeply through his nose. Upon feeling Uri completely inside of him, Kenny’s mouth twisted into an O shape, and his cock quivered, ready to blow with the right movement.

“Goddamn, you’re so fucking tight,” Uri groaned, his arms wrapping beneath Kenny’s thighs and his hands firmly gripping Kenny’s ass. “You really are going to suck me dry.”

Slowly, Uri lifted Kenny’s hips before dropping the weight of his beau upon his lap. A few times he did this, each time sending rolling shockwaves throughout Kenny’s body and down to his curling toes. Then, with Kenny’s help, Uri quickened the pace, bouncing the other up and down upon his shaft in rhythmic harmony. With each thrust, the milk bottle jiggled back and forth, just barely rubbing against the base of Kenny’s cock. Still, it wasn’t until the head of Uri’s cock hammered upon the sweet spot that Kenny thought he might go over the edge. Upon hearing Kenny’s enraptured cries and feeling the clenching of his insides upon him, Uri quickened his pace, his hips flailing with frenzied abandon. He gripped the milk bottle and smirked, his platinum hair sticking to his forehead and cheeks.

“Are you ready to cum?”

“Oh, god, please,” was all Kenny could manage.

Without preamble, Uri jerked the milk bottle off of Kenny’s cock and tossed it aside. In that moment, the final hammering of the thrusts upon his sweet spot sent Kenny over the edge, and the unbearable pressure at the base of his spine exploded. Every line of his quaking body seized up at once, and the clamping of his insides forced Uri to succumb as well. Sticky, hot cum spurted all over Kenny’s belly while Uri buried his own seed deep inside of him. Gasping for breath, Uri fell against Kenny’s chest and wrapped his arms about him. For a long moment, they shivered against the heat of each other’s bodies as shockwaves of pleasure ricocheted over and over throughout them.

“Fuck,” Uri huffed. “That was really fucking good.”

Kenny pressed his forehead against the top of Uri’s head and breathed in his blonde hair. “Ah, yes,” he mumbled. “So good…”

After a moment, Uri pulled himself away. He used the dishrags by the sink to clean himself and Kenny up before fixing his trousers. With a shudder, Kenny wriggled his sore hips and glanced at the mug still upon the counter.

“So, uh, the key is under that one, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” Uri chuckled. He reached over and knocked it aside, but there was nothing there. “Oh…”

“ _Oh_ , what?” Kenny snapped. His brow furrowed. “You know where it is, don’t you?”

Uri laughed nervously. “Of course, I do.”

“You fucking lost it, didn’t you?”

“I mean, it’ll be somewhere here…”

“Well, find it, then.”

But instead, Uri turned around with a wicked grin upon his dimpled cheeks. “On the other hand, I could go for another round.”

“Ahhh, Uri, you bastard…”

When Levi got home from his lesson with the tutor, Uri told the child with a straight face that Kenny had taken a fall down some steps and that they were only in bed together so that he could tend to his injuries. Perhaps that was why, that next morning, Uri awoke with a knife to his throat and a small child sitting on his chest. He hadn’t ever expected gray eyes just like Kenny’s to glare at him with such hate. He tried not to move when he felt the sharp blade against his flesh.

“Get off of him, you little monster,” Kenny snapped from the doorway. “I told you to wake him up for breakfast, not for murder.”

“He hasn’t paid you,” Levi muttered. His eyes in appearance were like Kenny’s, but the likeness ended there.

“What?” Uri croaked. “Paid for what…?”

“I couldn’t protect Mama when men cheated her.” The tiny grip tightened on the knife. “I won’t let you get away without paying Kenny. I’m strong now—stronger than you.”

“Levi, I said to get off of him!” Kenny shouted, unmoving from the doorway. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“Yes, I do.” Levi didn’t waver in his words. Everything Uri loved about Kenny—the passion, feeling, humanity—was eerily absent from his nephew. “He uses you just like men used Mama. I won’t let him get away with it.”

“It’s not the same thing, Levi.” Kenny took two steps toward the bed. “I’m not like your mama. I do work for Mr. Reiss, and just because you don’t see him pay me doesn’t mean he’s withholding payment.”

Levi didn’t move until Kenny was right behind him, and only then did the child remove himself from straddling Uri. With a huff, he turned and walked out of the bedroom.

“Just go back to where you came from!” he screamed. “No one wants you here!”

The front door slammed behind him as Levi stormed out of the duplex. Kenny only cast an idle glance over his shoulder before sitting down on the bed beside Uri.

“I’m sorry about him,” Kenny muttered. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing anymore. I never did him any favors. All I did was awaken bloodlust and anger inside of him. I guess deep down, disorder runs through the blood of the Ackermans. We can’t help it, I suppose.”

Uri frowned and sat upright. “He’s right though,” he muttered. “I should leave.”

“I want to go with you—“

“Not right now. You need to wait a few days for it to blow over.” Uri pressed his forehead against Kenny’s shoulder and breathed in his musky scent. “But… you’ve got Levi’s affairs settled, correct?”

Kenny nodded. “I purchased the deed to this duplex from the landlord. The neighbors will now pay Levi their rent. I also bought the deeds for the other duplexes nearby, and Levi will collect their rent as well. He already knows this, but he thinks I’m just assigning him to my own affairs. It’ll be enough money each month to support him so that he can continue his lessons with the tutor. I want him to at least have a basic education so that he has enough knowledge of the world. I’m certain he can fend for himself.”

“That’s good.” Uri smiled bitterly. “And then you’ll never have to worry about him ever again.”

“That’s the idea.” Kenny ran a hand through Uri’s blonde locks and kissed the top of his head. “Then I live out the rest of my life as the last Ackerman.”

_The last Ackerman_. Uri thought it was strangely romantic, positively alluring. As he walked alone up the stairwell leading to aboveground, he couldn’t quite get the images of Kenny out of his head. The midday light nearly blinded him when he emerged from the Underground. For a long moment, he stood on the street corner, staring blankly at the bustle around him. In his black cloak, he was more of a peasant than a king in the midst of the finery of the Capital. He was so dumbstruck by the contrast of aboveground to just immediately below his feet that he didn’t initially notice the carriage that appeared beside him. Then, when he turned around, there were two men in black trench coats.

“Lord Reiss,” one of the men said, “your brother has been very concerned for your well-being.”

Uri froze. Of course—the Interior Brigade had waited patiently for him to emerge from the Underground to clear Kenny’s name. He didn’t even have the chance to fully realize it was a trap before the men’s hands were upon him, and a chloroform-soaked cloth stifled his cry of surprise. The last thing he remembered before his vision faded to black was being dragged into the waiting carriage and into the clutches of his sociopathic brother’s henchmen.


	14. Aviary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Uri is abducted by his brother's henchman, Kenny races against the clock to rescue him before it's too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Kenny races against the clock to rescue him, but it takes you two months to post the fucking update," you undoubtedly mutter under your breath at this very moment.
> 
> Ahhhh yes, sorry about that. :') As I hinted in the last chapter's notes, I had a busy few weeks ahead of me plus some unexpected family emergencies. Momocon was pretty great and I had a great time meeting everyone (you can see all the pictures on my Instagram @caitybelleackeryandere). Oh, and I just signed the paperwork for my new job! Unfortunately, that does mean no Metrocon for me, but I should still be good for Matsuricon.
> 
> Also my best friend is ACTUALLY THE BEST because she made an Uriken body pillow for me and my gooooooooood it's so hard to get out of bed now. If you go on my shitpost Instagram account @urisyaoihand69 you will definitely see pictures. Ahhhhhhh~~
> 
> P.S. If you don't hate my guts by the end of this chapter, then you probably never will (and I probably don't deserve you, you gracious, pure god/dess).

Uri couldn’t wake up from his nightmare, or at least he had convinced himself it was but a dream. The last thing he remembered was being chloroformed and abducted by the Interior Brigade. If he could have but grasped a sliver of clear-minded consciousness, perhaps he could have manipulated their minds into letting him go. They knew that, so they kept him bound and drugged. Each time his eyes fluttered open for but a moment, a cloth covered his mouth and nose, choking him until he passed out, the panic of suffocation keeping him from focusing upon anything else. He couldn’t recall the last time that he could breathe freely. He just wished to sleep a while in peace.

Then suddenly, a bright light upon his face beckoned him back to consciousness. He couldn’t remember if he had seen light since he had been on that street corner. How long ago had that been, when he had emerged from the Underground and left the safety of Kenny’s side? His eyelids were heavy upon his swimming, glassy eyes. He couldn’t help but stare directly at that light, even though it hurt him. He couldn’t feel his prone body, strapped down to a crude crucifix. Still, he wondered when a hand would clamp down upon his face and force him back into unconsciousness. The hand came, but it didn’t smother him. Instead, it touched his cheek gently, affectionately, coldly.

“My poor baby brother,” Rod said from just outside the light above, “this will be over soon.”

“Rod,” Uri gasped voicelessly, “oh god, please stop.”

“I’m so sorry, baby brother.” Rod dragged his fingers through Uri’s hair, brushing it away from his tear-streaked face. “I’m so sorry about what Kenny has done to you. I’ll fix everything.”

“He signed the new contract,” Uri croaked. “You can’t—“

“I saw,” he sighed. “I did get the copy you mailed me a week ago. I particularly liked how you sent the newspapers copies as well a few days ago, with coy little notes about how the story had been but a misunderstanding—that you had left of your own accord. Still, it wasn’t difficult to convince them that you had been coerced into it. After all, you’re so small and vulnerable, and Kenny Ackerman is a big, strong murderer. Really, you’re but a lamb and he a lion.”

“Why, Rod?” Hot tears welled upon the surface of his eyes. “Goddammit, I love him. Why can’t you just leave us alone?”

“Yes, you love him, but he could never actually love you. After all, you’re a monster. He only tells you he loves you because he doesn’t want to die. Then, when he had an excuse to run off, you allowed it. He hasn’t shown any sign of coming back. Even now, you’ve disappeared without a trace, and he hasn’t emerged from the Underground. When will you get it through your poor, little brain?” Rod wrapped the cornsilk strands around his chubby fingers and tugged hard. “I don’t even care so much that you’re gay. That only works out in my favor that you’ll never have children. It’s just easier for me if you kept yourself from getting so attached to the one man that you can’t control.”

“He would never betray or hurt me,” Uri uttered. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat. “Unlike my own brother.”

“I’m so sorry that you think of me like that,” Rod sighed as he framed Uri’s face in his hands, “but I suppose I’ll have to change your mind.”

When Uri opened his mouth to protest, Rod slipped something upon his tongue. Uri winced at the bitterness, but as soon as he thought to spit it out, it had already dissolved. Panic gripped his heart.

“What have you done…?”

“What makes you think Kenny could ever love you?” Rod laughed as he backed away into the darkness. “You’re deluded to believe he cares about you any further than if you provide him comfortable shelter and accommodations and if you give him enough money to do whatever he pleases. I would know. My own Lady Reiss has said as much. What makes you think your pet cares more than your own sister-in-law? He’s probably not even gay, but to be fair I also would take a dick and a bunch of money over a blade any day.”

“You’re a fucking abomination, and I can understand why no one would care about you,” Uri muttered. Suddenly, he felt sick, and the room started to spin. He shook his head, but still his eyes swam. “What did you give me…?”

“It’ll distract your mind while you’re conscious, so that you can’t manipulate your way out of this. Don’t you know what Kenny does to the men that you send him to kill?” From the blackness, Uri heard Rod’s dark laughter. “He doesn’t just kill them. He makes sure they suffer before death.”

“So you’re going to kill me, big brother?”

“I wouldn’t say that. After so much pain, even my baby brother, who is capable of bending any mind but the one of his lover, will succumb to any demand.”

“What the hell is the demand anyway?” Uri snapped. Blotches of color appeared in his vision. “That I stop loving Kenny?”

“Yes. Then you’ll revoke your protection of him, and then I’ll have him and his sister’s child killed by your own command.”

“Why do you need me to do that…? Why does it even matter?”

“Unfortunately, your letters to the newspapers complicated the affair, for some of your noble acquaintances have agreed that you went of your own free will,” Rod said quietly. “Too many people are aware of the situation for the Interior Brigade to be of any use. The command will have to come from your mouth.” His simpering laugh sent a chill down Uri’s spine. His voice seemed different now, as if his mind were playing tricks on him. “That drug I gave you makes it so that you hallucinate the one you long for the most.”

“Y-you’re fucking with me, right?”

Uri inhaled sharply as shadows stirred in the darkness. From the four corners of the room came four men, all dressed in black trench coats and black hats. The darkness obscured their faces from him, but their hands with long, calloused fingers were too similar to the hands that he loved so much—he didn’t dare to look up to see if the faces matched the hands. The flash of silver caught his eye, each man brandishing a pair of pliers. His heart squeezed in his chest as in synchrony the pliers grasped his thumbnails and large toenails.

“Ahhh, st-stop,” he gasped, fumbling for the power to use his mind against them. “St-stop… I’m your fucking king, so just stop already!”

All at once, the pliers tugged away the targeted nails. An ugly shriek of agony escaped his lips as his body and mind lit up with pain. Desperately, he flailed against the leather restraints, steam rising up from his injuries. Just as soon as the pain had passed, they moved on to the second nail, pausing long enough for him to dwell upon the trauma. His entire body stiffened and tensed in anticipation of all his fingernails and toenails being torn from the nail beds. His wide eyes locked upon the black ceiling, he held his breath. _They’ll grow back,_ he reminded himself. _Oh, god, they’ll grow back_ , he thought with trepidation.

Still, he wouldn’t look at his tormenters. If Rod had been right about the drug, he would only see Kenny’s face beneath those black hats. Of course, he thought with the last of his rationality—Rod wanted to make him think that his beau would harm him. His eyes glazed over with torment as the men wrenched away the fifth nail. Foolishly, he believed it was over, but then they pulled out another tool, what looked to be bolt cutters. Uri instinctively balled up his fists, but his pain-stricken, weakened resolve wasn’t strong enough to resist. When the tool pressed against the base of his phalanges, a pitiful sob overtook him.

“Oh god, please, no,” he begged. “For the love of the walls—“

A bone-shattering crunch filled his ears. Thrashing against his restraints, he screamed—screamed until he thought his voice might give out. Then as he clenched his tearing eyes shut, he felt a gentle, familiar touch, framing his face. Without considering the existential horror, he looked up into the face of someone who only appeared to be Kenny. Still, the pain had already taken his rationality. His eyes welled up with tears.

“Oh god, help me,” he begged. “Save me…”

The specter’s lips twisted into a heartless grin just as the bolt cutters clamped down upon the second digits. The hands upon his face were just as cold as the tools used to torture him. In spite of the tears that burned in his eyes, the vision of Kenny didn’t fade away into the darkness but instead hovered above him, staring, smirking. He tried to close his eyes, but the thumbs only brushed over his eyelids and forced them open to stare back into that cruel face. By the time his third digits were cut off, he couldn’t feel the pain anymore.

“Oh god, I can’t do this,” he gasped. “Please… please make them stop.”

The phantom of his lover didn’t answer except with the flash of a toothy grin. The removal of his fourth digit was nothing compared to the agony that wrenched his heart. Tears spilled down his cheeks and over those hands that seemed to belong to the man he wanted to see most in the world. A sob tore through his chest.

“Oh god, help me,” he pleaded. “Please… oh god…”

Silently, the specter leaned in close and kissed his clammy forehead. Just a moment later, the bolt cutters closed around the final digits. He screamed through his clenched teeth, his frozen body only shaking now. Then the vision of Kenny pulled back and stared down at him. Steam rose up from his extremities as his healing factor kicked in. The ragged breath caught in his throat, so he knew he was still alive even if it seemed otherwise. He seemed to float above his body, like he treaded water, his consciousness just barely breaching the surface of the bleak depths. Just as the slender fingers brushed back his hair, Uri noticed that the vision’s eyes were dark like his brother’s—not at all like Kenny’s gray eyes. The illusion shattered, but he didn’t let on to it.

“You’re already starting to heal,” the phantom spoke. His voice wasn’t at all like Kenny’s either. “Once you’re fully healed, we’ll begin again.”

Now that he was aware of the illusion, Uri thought perhaps he might be able to bend his brother’s mind. Before he could act, however, the hands clamped down upon his nose and mouth. All rational thoughts left him like his consciousness only moments later.

 

* * *

 

A week had passed since Mr. Reiss had left. Levi had been happy to see him gone, but Kenny wasn’t the same as he was before his employer’s stay. He couldn’t be certain if the change was good or bad. He just realized that he felt completely different about Kenny, like he was sick to his stomach in a good way when he saw him now. It hadn’t escaped his notice that Kenny tried to push him away, but Levi was only more determined now to keep him close. When Kenny referred to how Levi would hold up without him around, he knew that this strange man planned to abscond to the place he couldn’t follow him. As time slipped through his fingers, he desperately thought of what might have kept Kenny around longer.

That night at the tavern, Levi pretended not to listen as Kenny spoke with a dark-haired man in a black trench coat and hat, seated beside him at the bar. The man seemed nervous, as if something might happen to him if he were caught speaking with the Ripper. Levi didn’t understand the conversation, but he paid attention regardless.

“I had to find you, talk to you man-to-man,” the man started. “I’ve heard so much about you, so I thought—“

“Cut the shit,” Kenny snarled, the brim of his hat obscuring his cold eyes. “Uri told me to wait it out, but now I realize that was a bad idea. I should have gone with him. You found out where they took him?”

“Yes,” the man croaked. “They took him outside of the Capital, to a small outpost right outside the eastern gate. You know they’ll know who told you their location if you just go in there, guns blazing, right?”

“That won’t matter. There won’t be a single one left.” Kenny curled his lip bitterly. “I would stay away from that outpost for the next few days if I were you.”

The man slipped a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it discreetly to Kenny. “This is the layout,” he murmured. “It should tell you everything you want to know.”

“Hmmm, I see.” Kenny tucked the paper away into his coat. “So tell me why you agreed to help me then.”

“Less competition for that next promotion,” he chuckled. When Kenny didn’t laugh, he coughed. “Why are you so eager to save Uri Reiss?”

“I must protect him,” Kenny muttered. “After all, I signed a contract with him. It wouldn’t be right to let down my employer.”

The man propped his elbows up on the bar and placed his chin on his palm. “Are the rumors true about your relationship with him?”

“By the terms of my contract, I’m not allowed to discuss that without prior permission.”

“Oh… but no one is here—“

“I don’t take my contract lightly,” Kenny retorted. “My contract employs me for the rest of my life so that I may see his vision through after his death. If I were not loyal to my employer, I would stay here forever in the Underground. There is nothing in this life but to serve Uri Reiss.”

Levi couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation for that one statement. Even after he departed, Mr. Reiss was determined to steal Kenny away from him. His belly twisted in ways he never knew possible, felt sickness never experienced before. He almost didn’t notice when the other man left in a hurry. For a few minutes, he and Kenny sat there in silence, until Kenny finally stood up from his barstool.

“We’re leaving, Levi.”

Kenny was already to the door by the time Levi had climbed down off his barstool, and he ran to catch up with him. Catching up might have been difficult once, but he had grown quite a bit in the past few months, as if finally having enough to eat had forced him into a growth spurt. It was still strange to him to finally be taller than those long legs. Now that the sun didn’t trickle through the holes in the cavern above, the Underground had settled into the darkness of evening. Levi clutched the fabric of Kenny’s khaki trench coat, but Kenny knocked his hand away.

“Kenny,” Levi said quietly, the first time he had spoken in hours, “are you going aboveground soon?”

“Yes,” was the abrupt response. “I have business to attend. You’ll stay here and conduct business as usual in my absence. You’ll go to your lesson every day as well. I don’t want to come back and hear that you’re skipping the tutor.”

Levi’s heart fluttered a bit when Kenny mentioned coming back. “Understood.” He crossed his arms and cast his silver gaze upon the dirty sidewalk. His thin eyebrows furrowed. “I want to go aboveground with you—to rescue Mr. Reiss.”

“I told you to pay no mind to my business,” Kenny snapped. “You can’t go anywhere aboveground anyway. You don’t have citizenship.”

“Would Mr. Reiss give me citizenship?”

“There’s nothing up there for you, boy, but exploitation and a life of servitude,” Kenny muttered, not looking back at Levi. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“You came down here to be free, didn’t you?” Levi balled up his fists and stared up at the back of Kenny’s head, desperate to get any sort of response. “If you want to be free, why don’t you just stay down here forever?”

“You wouldn’t understand why I came. It’s not so black and white. One day, when you’ve grown up, you’ll understand that.” Kenny climbed the steps of their duplex, taking the left path to their front door, with Levi at his heels. “When you’re young, it’s so easy to get caught up living in the moment. I hope someday you’ll find someone to dedicate your life to, so that you can learn what I know now.”

With a growl, Levi clutched the tail of Kenny’s coat. “Why won’t you let me dedicate my life to you?” he demanded. “It’s not fair… I’m stronger than Mr. Reiss. I’m stronger than anyone else. Why am I not good enough?”

“Levi.” With his hand upon the doorknob, Kenny turned to look down at him, his face like ice. “Strength isn’t always about muscle. A man who forgives all trespasses, who trusts without any doubts, who can see a greater vision than the rest of us short-sighted dogs is much stronger than either of us. That light and goodness is the only thing in the world worth protecting.” He looked away and opened the door. “Like I said, you won’t understand now, but one day, when you’re holding a blade and going in for the kill, you’ll recognize that person. You’ll feel it then. Something will awaken inside of you, and nothing will be able to keep you apart from the one who you’ve been called to—it’s our curse, after all. You’ll lose everything, but it’s a choice you’ll never regret.”

Levi didn’t understand the significance of Kenny’s words then. Even then, years later, when he finally did meet Erwin Smith, he didn’t realize until outside the walls, in the pouring rain, that Kenny had been right about that moment, that he would sacrifice everything to follow that light in the world wherever he went. Letting go of Kenny’s coat, his hand limply fell to his side.

“But I don’t want to lose everything,” he whispered.

“Well, that’s tough shit,” Kenny murmured. “It is what it is.” When he walked through the door, leaving Levi on the doorstep, his utterance barely reached Levi’s ears. “Even the one you’ve dedicated your life to—you’ll lose him, too, someday.”

When Levi awoke the next morning, Kenny was gone. The note he had left on the table promised that he would return within a month. Like Mama had closed her eyes and had gone to a place he couldn’t follow, Kenny had ascended that stairwell and had left Levi alone. Kenny always talked about his own curse, so he wondered if this were only right—if being alone was Levi’s curse.

 

* * *

 

Uri wasn’t certain how many times he had gone through this agony, and he wasn’t certain how much more he could take. As he came to this time, a dark figure checked his hands and feet to make sure he had completely healed. He was careful not to open his eyes again, lest the man become aware that he was conscious. Faintly, he heard the muffled voice of his brother and figured he must be on the other side of a door. By the sound of it, Rod was talking to the torturers. Uri figured he only had a minute or two to get control of the situation.

Inhaling deeply, Uri mentally reached out toward the mind of the man in the room with him. The pain that wracked his body would make it difficult to manipulate more than one mind at a time, but just this one was all he needed. Without further prompting, the man wordlessly released him from his restraints and helped him to sit up. Before he could find the power to stand, however, the door opened, and his brother and the torturers entered the room. For a split second, the Reiss brothers exchanged wide-eyed stares before either acted. Focusing all of his intent, Uri reached out for the other men’s minds, but Rod stopped that with a bullet to his hip. His resolve crumpled like he did upon the floor.

“Fuck!” Uri screamed, clutching the wound. Blood gushed over his fingers and down his leg, but after a moment, steam rose from the entry point. “Oh, goddammit…!”

“Did you think you were going somewhere, baby brother?” Rod asked. He glanced askew at the man who had released Uri, his mind beginning to recover from Uri’s grip. “Did you untie him…?”

The man stumbled forward, his eyes wide. “Ah, yes, but he—“

A gunshot cut him short, and he dropped to his knees, blood gurgling from his mouth. Shocked, Uri gazed up at his brother. The other torturers stared down at the twitching, dying body upon the floor. Rod hummed.

“That will be the fate of every man who you try to bend to your will,” he said. “You wouldn’t do that to everyone, would you?”

“Oh, god,” Uri gasped. His wound was slow to heal, but he had stopped bleeding. “What has happened to make you this way?”

“Someone has to maintain control of the infrastructure, and it’s a cruel world out there.” Rod waved the gun. “Go back to where you were upon the crucifix.”

“Please stop.” Uri bowed his head, his tears dripping upon the floor. “Oh god, I can’t stand it anymore, but I won’t renounce Kenny. It’s pointless to continue when my resolve will not be swayed.”

“Eventually you’ll yield. Now get back on the crucifix.”

“What if I die?” he cried. “Oh god, what if you kill me? What happens then? Our heritage and all knowledge of outside the walls will be lost—“

“Don’t pretend that it’s so easy to kill you, baby brother.” Rod’s thumb pulled back on the hammer of the gun once more, ready to shoot. “It’s for your own good, Uri. When it’s over, you’ll thank me for snapping you out of this affliction. Trust me.”

“I’ll _thank_ you for this?” Uri hissed, clutching his head and curling up against the side of the crucifix. “Without Kenny, what do I have to look forward to? Do you just want me to go back to the way I was before I met him, when I would lock myself up for weeks and think about how fucking helpless I am to stop the end of the world? When I would sit up all night in bed and contemplate the existential horror of what is to come? Why do you want that?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Rod stepped closer and hovered over him. He pressed the muzzle of the gun against Uri’s shoulder. “It’s better this way.”

“You’ve always been jealous of me,” Uri wept, clenching his fists. “You were too scared to take the power of the coordinate, so you put me up to it… You fucking knew what it would do to someone’s mind. You knew I would never be able to leave home, that I would always be dependent upon you. You’re jealous of my strength and of everything that I have that you cannot take away from me. You wish that for one moment, _just one moment_ , that someone could possibly love you as much as Kenny loves me—“

Uri’s words were cut short by the squeeze of the trigger and by his own blood-curdling scream. He sucked in a sharp breath and looked through the tears at his arm, only hanging on by torn flesh now. Rod seemed surprised himself by the blood upon his hands, gushing for a moment from the wound until it started to heal. The flesh of his arm severed completely and dropped onto the floor before it began to evaporate into steam.

“Such a freak,” Rod muttered, recoiling. “Like someone could love you… Look at you. The only reason that Kenny has stuck around as long as he has is because he fears you, and he doesn’t want to die. When will you figure it out?”

“Oh god, oh god.” Uri pressed his remaining hand to his face, streaked with tears. “When did my big brother become so cruel? This creature before me is not the same as the kind boy who I grew up with…”

“So what will you do?” Rod asked, his eyes turning cold. “Will you change me? Would you twist my mind so that I’m no longer cruel? Would you manipulate me into being the kind boy that you remember from so long ago? Would you fix me as you see fit?”

“Yes, if you will let me,” Uri gasped, looking up at Rod. “Of course, I would fix you. Oh god, Rod, let me help you—“

Suddenly Rod brought his palm hard across Uri’s cheek. For a moment, Uri sat on the floor, stunned. His brother glared down at him, fire reignited within his eyes.

“You’re no different than me, yet you call me the monster!” Rod shouted through clenched teeth. “You think _I_ need to be fixed and have no fucking qualms about erasing the parts of me that make me _me_ , but then when I think to do the same to you, I’m a fucking abomination! Face it, Uri: neither of us is good. Neither of us is the kind boy that we remember from our childhoods. We’ll never go back to that. I just stopped lying to myself, but you’re in love with this idea of being a martyr.”

Uproar distracted the men who stood around them, and the torturers ran out of the room, slamming the door behind them. Neither Uri nor Rod seemed to notice. Uri stared down at the stump of his arm as it slowly grew back, centimeters at a time. He jumped when Rod suddenly kneeled down before him and threw his arms around him.

“Goddammit, Uri,” he whispered, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m a fucking monster.”

Uri sucked in a sharp breath before throwing his own arm around his brother. Tears welled in his eyes. “It’s okay, Rod. You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’m a monster, too. We really aren’t that different.”

For a long moment, Rod held him there against his chest. Then he grasped Uri’s face and kissed the top of his head.

“So now that you understand me,” he said quietly, “you won’t have any objections to what I’m about to do.”

Uri should have known, but retrospect was a bitch like that. Rod shoved him hard onto his back against the cold floor, the blaring light above silhouetting him. With his intact arm, Uri knocked away the gun in a blind panic, sending it skidding across the room, but it hadn’t been Rod’s weapon of choice. When he saw the icepick that his brother drew from his coat pocket, his heart leapt into his throat. He grasped his brother’s wrist as Rod pushed hard against him, the thin spike just inches from his face. Leverage was impossible in his current condition or position, so it was just a matter of minutes until his strength failed him. In spite of the hopeless endeavor, Uri held fast.

“There are other ways of bending minds,” Rod huffed. “Usually, a doctor does this, but it doesn’t matter how badly I botch it up. You’ll heal anyway.”

“So you would damn me to a vegetative life with only the coordinate in my right mind.” Tears blurred Uri’s vision. “Even I wouldn’t stoop so low.”

“You won’t think anything of it once it’s done and over.” Rod pressed harder, the icepick now only centimeters from Uri’s eye. “Forget about everything. Let me take care of my baby brother. Just relax. It’ll happen anyway, so why fight it?”

During their scuffle, neither of them had heard the cacophony that occurred just outside that door. When the door flew open, they looked up to see Kenny, standing there, drenched in gore. The fluttering of his heart caused Uri’s grip to slip, and the icepick pierced his eye. Really, Uri had expected the spike then to skewer his head, but Kenny was upon Rod in an instant, his hand clamping down on his neck and lifting him off the ground. For a moment, Uri lay there, stunned by the sudden rescue. Then the sound of his brother, gasping for breath, snapped him back to reality. Kenny wrenched the icepick from Rod’s hand and shoved it back in his face.

“Open your mouth,” Kenny hissed, his gray eyes ferocious and wild. “Let me see your tongue. Remember that? Do you remember that? I’m going to shove this down your throat, and you’re going to take it like the little bitch you are.” Angry tears streamed down his face. “Do you remember that? I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done to me, you sick son of a bitch—“

“Kenny, no!” Uri called out hoarsely. When Kenny paused and looked down at him, he struggled to sit up. “Stop. It’s over. We won. Kenny, let him go.”

“What?” Kenny and Rod both sputtered in unison.

“I said to let him go,” Uri said more forcefully. “Our fight is done. You’ve already killed everyone else here, right? That’s all that I needed you to do.”

Kenny, shell-shocked, released Rod from his grip, and the elder Reiss brother collapsed upon the floor. Coughing, Rod clutched his chest and crumpled forward upon the floor. With cold eyes, Kenny glared back at Uri.

“After all he has done, you’ll turn the other cheek,” he muttered. “Just look at what he has done to you—to _me_. Will you really leave it alone?”

“Twisting his mind would make me no better than him.” Uri stared down at his stump, having regenerated his humerus partially. “Kenny, none of us are kind men. It hurt me once to admit the truth, but it’s time we come to terms with that.”

Uri expected Kenny to argue with him, but he didn’t. Instead, it was Rod who objected.

“Really, that is the end of it?” he gasped. “You think this is over?”

“No, it’s not over,” Uri sighed. He reached up toward Kenny, and his beau helped him to his unsteady feet. “You’ll publicly apologize for your fabricated story and acknowledge the legitimacy of my contract with Kenny. As well, Kenny will officially be a captain in the Interior Brigade so that I have eyes on your personal militia and its workings.”

Rod knotted his brows. “There is no captain position—“

“There is now, by the order of the king.” Uri leaned into Kenny’s chest weakly. “Seeing as I can’t send you off to prison, you’ll owe both Kenny and I a cash settlement for your respective crimes against us. House arrest may be appropriate as well, seeing as most of your _fun_ is had away from home.”

“You’re really going to throw the book at me, aren’t you?”

“Of course. Just because I’m not going to allow Kenny to kill you doesn’t mean you won’t pay up for what you’ve done.”

“Actually, we need to hurry this up here,” Kenny muttered.

The Reiss brothers looked at him expectantly.

“We’ll discuss the terms of Rod’s punishment later in the carriage.” He looked toward the door. “But we need to get out of here quickly. The MPs should soon receive the anonymous note that I sent them about an attack on this outpost. We all need to be gone by the time they act on that tip.”

“Yes, that’s true.” Uri looked down at Rod. “Come on, big brother. We’ll take the carriage to the townhouse in the Capital, and then you can take it back home to the estate.”

“Why, Uri?” Rod whispered, staring down at his hands, stained in blood. “You know, if we stayed here, just you and me, the MPs would arrest me for what I’ve done. They might even sentence me to life in prison. Yet—you are so eager to forgive me. Why…?”

“Why?” Uri held out his intact hand to Rod. “The answer you want to hear is this: you’re my brother, and I love you. The truth, however, is that I’m in no way, shape, or form prepared to run the government without you. It’s absolutely true that I’m dependent upon you, like I needed you to have children when I couldn’t so this curse could continue to be passed down in our family. Still, if you ever dare to cross me again or to even speak ill of me, even in twenty years’ time, then I will have Kenny do what he wanted to do to your throat with that icepick.”

Rod grasped Uri’s hand and pulled himself onto his feet. A dark look crossed his eyes. “You’re an idealistic fool, baby brother. That doesn’t make you a kind man.”

“No, but it makes me better than you.” Uri’s lips pressed into a tight smile. “That’s all I can really hope for at this point.”

 

* * *

 

Kenny wasn’t certain what went through Uri’s mind. Then again, he supposed he had always felt that way. Still, throughout that tense, silent carriage ride to the Reiss townhouse in the Capital, that dark look hadn’t left Uri’s eyes. The elder Reiss brother, meanwhile, had agreed to return to the estate and to send their belongings to their temporary safe haven in the city. Kenny wasn’t certain what Rod had done to Uri, but if it had been anything like what had been done to him, then Uri likely had no interest in being anywhere near that cruel monster.

Of course, Kenny could only be furious with himself. He had known that physically Uri was unable to take on Rod’s henchmen and that he should have gone with him aboveground initially. As much mental fortitude Uri had, he could only fail at protecting his body. That was why he was there, Kenny reminded himself. Like a stone wall, he vowed to stand by his lover and his king, keeping him safe from all outside threats.

Upon their arrival at the townhouse, the staff was surprised by their sudden appearance. Rod had been staying there for a week already, so the house was adequately prepared, but the staff had believed Uri to have actually disappeared. With a weak laugh, Uri denied the rumors as his brother had told them, saying instead that he and Kenny had been vacationing in an exotic locale. The staff was kind enough to ignore their torn, bloodied clothes and prepared a bath for them prior to dinner.

In spite of the varied dishes set out for their dinner, Uri didn’t eat until Kenny mentioned it. Even then, Kenny watched him only eat a few bites before giving up on the endeavor. Having been exhausted by slicing flesh, Kenny momentarily ignored Uri’s refusal to eat and wolfed down two plates of food. When he finished eating, he turned his attention to Uri, pondering the polished silver by his plate.

“You should try to eat more,” Kenny started. “Maybe not too much if your body has been deprived, but enough to help heal yourself.”

“Kenny,” Uri said quietly, “I know my body can’t match your strength. I should never go out on my own again.”

Kenny looked away. “Don’t say stupid things, Uri. You’ve proven time and time again that you’re strong.”

“I failed on so many levels,” he continued. “I thought I could confront my brother without you. I wanted to protect you, but you ended up saving me instead. Without you, I’m nothing. Even with this curse, I can’t do anything.”

“Uri, that’s not true—“

“Kenny, I’m so sorry.” Uri bowed his head and dragged his fingers through his hair. “You gave me your life, but I’m just so pathetic. Maybe you just really felt sorry for me. I’m sorry that I’m so weak—“

“Uri.” Suddenly, Kenny threw himself upon his knees on the floor. He grasped Uri’s hand and pressed it to his cheek. “Hit me,” he whispered. “I can take any abuse. Just hit me until you feel strong again.”

For a split second, those blue eyes turned to black, but almost immediately the coordinate’s grip upon Uri slipped. The kind man who Kenny loved gently stroked his cheek. Just as the blue returned from the momentary darkness, tears spilled over down Uri’s dimpled cheeks.

“There must be something wrong with me.” Uri’s lower lip trembled slightly as he spoke. “I love you so much, but I want nothing more than to do as you’ve asked. Perhaps that’s a sign of my own personal weakness.”

“You’ve done it when I needed it, so please… do it when you need it for yourself.” Kenny kissed the hand upon his face. “You took the Interior Brigade’s abuse to protect me, didn’t you? So let me feel just a bit of what you felt then. I deserve it.”

“You would consent to that?” Uri asked, his voice catching in his throat.

“Please,” Kenny whispered, “do as you please.”

“Oh god,” Uri gasped. “I’ve come around full circle.”

“I need this too.” Kenny bowed his head. “I should have been there with you. I should have suffered alongside you. So… please be cruel. Remind me of your strength.”

For a long moment, Uri pondered his words. Then finally he pulled his hand back. His eyes turned to ice, although there was a hint of fire still.

“Then let’s do a scene,” he said. “Just because you tell me not to hold back and to be as cruel as I like doesn’t negate the use of our safe word and hand signals. I have just as much right to stop as you do.”

“Yes, Lord Reiss.” Kenny perked up at Uri’s sudden intensity. His heart fluttered in his chest. “I understand.”

“Go upstairs to the bedroom,” Uri commanded, rising to his feet. “I want you to lay on your back on the bed. Secure your calves to your thighs with soft leather belts and place a spreader bar between your legs as well. Wear a spider gag. Cuff your wrists to the headboard. That’ll be a good start.” He turned to leave but paused in the doorway. “Let’s pretend that you just tried to kill me like that time we met out in the field.” Uri spun around to face him one last time before departing. “Bind yourself in less than ten minutes. If one thing is out of place by the time I arrive, then it’ll be that much more severe for you.”

“Ten minutes…?”

“Less than ten minutes.” Uri hummed as he walked out the other door. “You’re wasting time, just standing there.”

The reality of the time limit hit Kenny in that moment. Scrambling to his feet, he raced to the bedroom that had been prepared for Uri. Accidentally he spooked a young maid who had been in the process of turning down the sheets in anticipation of the younger Lord Reiss’s bedtime. Kenny counted the seconds it took to convince her to leave the rest of the bedtime preparation to him. She very nearly wouldn’t leave until a more experience staff member rushed in and dragged her out. Once the door had shut, Kenny stripped, located the toy chest in this unfamiliar bedroom, and bound himself as per Uri’s instructions in record time.

Any moment, he expected the door to open, but the distant chime of the grandfather clock signaled the passage of at least half an hour. Being on his back with his wrists cuffed overhead and his bound, spread knees pointed up to the ceiling wasn’t anything that made him physically uncomfortable—still, having just rescued Uri earlier, Kenny wondered if someone could still break in and carry off the much smaller man. He tried to shake the thought, but he still obsessed over it. When the clock chimed the passage of an hour, Kenny contemplated the best way to break the handcuffs when finally the door opened.

Relief passed over Kenny when he saw Uri, but then he spotted the shopping bags that he carried. Without acknowledging Kenny or his impressive feat of binding himself, Uri shut the door behind him and set down the bags on the dressing table. With a sigh, he plopped down on the chaise longue. Moments later, he had poured himself a double of whiskey from the nearby decanter. Kenny wasn’t certain why this ritual of indifference always irked him, but especially after the day’s events, frustration bubbled up in his belly. When he finally felt the heat of the piercing glare upon him, Uri set aside his glass and rose to his feet.

“Certainly, you will eventually learn that I’m not a target that you can simply take out,” he sighed, “yet here you are, caught once more, last of the Ackerman clan. I’ve bested you yet again. How many times does this make it, having tied you up?”

Uri didn’t refer to anything that had actually happened. Instead, he referred to an ongoing scene between the two. It was a favorite of Uri’s, where he imagined Kenny still as an assassin. The scenario allowed Uri the freedom to be a bit crueler than usual, which honestly suited Kenny just fine. Uri stepped closer to the edge of the bed, leaned over Kenny, and gripped the spreader bar between his knees.

“But you know me quite well,” he continued with a grin. “The thrill for me is not in the hunt but in the kill.”

Releasing his grip upon the bar momentarily, Uri backed away to the bags he had placed upon the dressing table. His body blocked the sight of the things he laid out on a silk cloth, which he used to wrap around the items. He then placed the bundle just out of sight upon the nightstand. Before settling down to sit beside Kenny on the bed, he tied a short length of rope to the spreader bar and to the bed’s canopy overhead so that Kenny’s hips were lifted about eight inches off the mattress. Once he had positioned Kenny as he desired, he leaned down over him, his breath hot on Kenny’s neck.

“You look damn good, bound and gagged,” he whispered. “Still, you’ll look even better when you’re squirming and moaning.”

The touch of a hot hand upon his shoulder very nearly surprised Kenny. His gaze flickered between those dark, fiery eyes and the unusually warm hand upon his chest. Gently, fingertips brushed across his nipples, bristling at the brief stroke. Uri drew small circles with both hands around the stiff nubbins, slowly bringing closer his fingertips to tease them. A soft, muffled moan escaped Kenny’s lips as the warmth in his belly started to trickle down. Then suddenly Uri pulled back his hands. With a smirk, he reached over to the nightstand, where he had left his bundle.

“I wanted to experiment a bit,” he said, picking up a small amber bottle. He unscrewed the cap, and the smell of peppermint stung Kenny’s nose. “It’s good that you’re bound so securely.”

Kenny wasn’t certain what Uri meant by that until the drops of oil splashed onto his nipples. At first, the liquid was simply cold, but as it soaked in to his flesh, it stung a bit. The stinging escalated until the pain was enough to make Kenny squirm. When Uri touched his nipples again, Kenny very nearly jumped out of his skin. His body trembled against his binds, the stinging sensation alleviated by the pleasure granted by Uri’s fingertips. When his gaze flickered to Uri’s face again, the devilish smirk only intensified the heat already between his loins.

“Good boy,” he said quietly, “but I want to hear your voice a bit more.”

With one hand still on Kenny’s chest, Uri reached over to the nightstand. Kenny caught the sight of a wooden clothespin right as its teeth clamped down on one nipple, and he sucked in a ragged gasp. The peppermint oil only intensified the sharp bite, the waves of pain shooting throughout his body. After a moment of allowing the pain to settle in Kenny’s senses, Uri flicked his fingertip gently across the other nipple, bringing about another flush of warmth to his chest and loins. Almost as soon as he lifted the touch away, however, he secured a second clothespin to the nipple. Kenny jerked, but his binds held tight. Uri hummed his amusement.

“If I’m satisfied with your performance for this next part, I may be kind to you,” he said, “but only because I’m a kind man.”

With the amber bottle in hand, Uri scooted down the bed so that he was between Kenny’s legs. Kenny tried to still himself, but his thighs quivered in protest. One hot hand connected at the knee, trailed up the inside of the thigh, and stopped at the base of the cock, already engorged and growing in spite of the stinging pain further up. With a firm grip, Uri pumped the shaft a few times, enough for it to fully stiffen. Then, just as the gentle caress distracted Kenny from the pain of his chest, Uri tipped the bottle once more and covered the balls in peppermint oil. Kenny sucked in a deep breath as the coolness of the oil set his most sensitive flesh on fire.

“Even with your natural resistance to pain,” Uri said, simpering, “that’s going to burn quite a bit.”

Kenny was no stranger to pain, but there wasn’t quite anything similar to this sensation. As the burning intensified between his legs, his thighs struggled to clamp shut in spite of the spreader bar. For a minute or two, Uri simply watched him as he flailed against his restraints. Then, with a chuckle, his grip upon Kenny’s cock moved once more. Kenny’s attention snapped to the touch upon his shaft, the sudden pleasure drowning out the stinging in his balls. His hips bucked against Uri’s grip, precum rolling down his length and over Uri’s hand. After just a minute, however, Uri pulled his hand away.

“Don’t think I would be so kind to allow release yet,” he said. “Your demanding cock is in dire need of discipline.”

All at once, the stinging sensation took hold of Kenny. The momentary pleasure only served to contrast the pain, the endorphins racing to catch up with the rest of his body. Uri reached up and tugged the clothespin on each nipple, one at a time, slowly—just enough to bring awareness back to them. Then, as Kenny accustomed himself to the pain, Uri tapped softly on his balls. Something between a moan and a shriek left Kenny’s gagged mouth. When he thought the pain might overtake him completely, the caress upon his cock resumed, and again it subsided and was replaced with pleasure. It was at that moment that he slipped completely and irretrievably into subspace, his eyes like frosted glass now.

Just a moment later, Uri removed his touch, only to touch him again as soon as the dormant pain was at its peak. Over and over, he spoiled that eager, dripping cock with a firm grip, stopping for a moment and allowing the stinging to take Kenny’s senses. Each time, the touch dragged Kenny closer to the edge, the pressure at the base of his spine ready for release at any moment. With his eyes rolled back in his head, he rocked his hips against Uri’s hand, and his moans filled the air around them. Just when he thought he might cum, Uri suddenly reached up and tugged off the clothespins from his nipples. Barely holding in a scream, Kenny threw his head back and arched his back against the bed. A shaky breath fluttered on his lips.

“Don’t you dare cum yet,” Uri said. His dark eyes lit up. “You only have permission to cum from your ass tonight.”

A firm swat landed on Kenny’s ass, raised up off the bed. Once the sting subsided, Uri rubbed Kenny’s cock again, careful to not bring him too close. When he stopped to pull his hand back and allowed the stinging sensation to take hold once more, he added some hard smacks on the ass to the pause between caresses. Still, it was just a bit more than Kenny could take, and a particularly hard connection on his ass forced him over the edge. Uri seemed surprised by the sudden release, but with a snarl, he reached up and snatched the gag out of Kenny’s mouth.

“Bad boy,” he snapped. “I didn’t give you permission just now.”

“It was from my ass,” Kenny answered breathlessly. A smirk crept onto his trembling lips. “You gave me permission for that.”

Uri pondered that for a moment before chuckling. “I suppose that is true,” he said. “I meant from the inside, but _c’est la vie_. I am rather impressed that you managed to cum from being struck. I’ll have to keep that in mind from now on.” He tugged a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped at the mess upon Kenny’s belly. “Let’s try something new.”

After tossing aside the handkerchief, Uri plucked a bundle of soft leather cord off the nightstand. Settling comfortably between Kenny’s legs once more, he unraveled the bundle, found the end of the cord, and tied it in a knot around the root of Kenny’s cock and scrotum. Kenny watched with wide eyes as Uri wrapped the cord around the base, blood rushing back into his cock. When Uri brought the cord down between the balls and crossed it over back and forth a few times, Kenny sucked in a deep breath and bit his lip hard. The cord squeezed hard on him, especially as his erection returned—it was uncomfortable, but it didn’t hurt. Once the balls were wrapped in the cord, Uri brought the cord around just the cock until he reached the end of the shaft. Just before the start of the head, he tied off the cord and tucked the ends. His eyes sparkled as he inspected his handiwork, making certain there was no pinched skin or loss of circulation.

“How does that feel?” he cooed. “Like your cock belongs to me?”

“Th-that’s really lewd,” Kenny stuttered, staring at his own bound cock. Already he felt the stir of excitement in his belly. “But… it’s really hot.”

“You’ve been a bad boy, so I’ll have to make you suffer now.”

Uri again reached over to the nightstand, but instead of picking up one item, he grabbed the silk bundle and set it down beside him. From Kenny’s position, he was helpless to do anything but watch as Uri uncapped the amber bottle once more and smear peppermint oil on the tender insides of his thighs. Slowly, starting close to the knees, clothespins clamped down on the tingling flesh one at a time, until the line reached the joint of the hips. Then the oil was applied to his tense sides, and the clothespins followed, starting the new line at the waist, going up the sides, and ending at the nipples. Each new bite of wood forced a shudder up Kenny’s tense spine and a quiet gasp from his twisted lips. Once he was done, Uri sat back on his heels and admired his handiwork for a moment. Kenny noticed then, as the pain began to subside a bit, that the ends of all the clothespins in each line had been connected with a string. A slight tug by Uri on the clothespins on the end of each line prompted a more ragged gasp.

“So sensitive,” Uri whispered, his hands trailing down the underside of the bound thighs. “I wonder if you’ll be able to stand what I’m going to do to you.”

Just as the bites of the clothespins became bearable, the endorphins having finally caught up, from the silk bundle Uri drew a large plume. All at once, Kenny’s muscles seized up in anticipation. Still, he reminded himself of the hell Uri had endured for his sake—even if he ended up as a blubbering mess, he would endure. But then the feather softly brushed against his balls, swollen and tender from the cord about them, and his resolve crumbled. The touch brought his awareness there, still stinging from the oil. Another dust of the feather brought forth a forlorn moan and a tremble from his hips. The third pass reduced him to shrieks. A devilish simper lit up Uri’s dimpled cheeks.

“You could tell me to stop,” he reminded him snidely. “Come on… beg me for mercy.”

Holding his breath, Kenny shook his head. Without the distraction of stimulation, the clothespins stung his flesh. Again, once his senses accustomed itself to the pain, the feather’s light caress made him flail and struggle, which only tightened the strings that tied the clothespins together. After only a few cycles of going between the sensations, Kenny wanted nothing more than to beg for it to stop, but he held in his voice. Then he noticed the subtle frustration on Uri’s face. He gulped for air as the feather teased him again.

“Oh god please,” he gasped. “Too much… ah, wouldn’t you rather just fuck me…?”

“I’m much more interested in hearing that voice right now,” Uri answered.

“You’re hearing me right now…”

“Not like that. You know what I want to hear.”

“Tch,” Kenny huffed with a playful smirk, “it’s not like you can make me do that.”

“Is that a challenge?”

Uri leaned down and brought his open mouth over the unbound head, his blue gaze never breaking from Kenny. Uri’s hot breath upon the tender flesh only intensified Kenny’s anticipation. Watching Kenny’s face and body, Uri stuck out his pink tongue and just grazed against the very tip. When Kenny stilled his quivering hips, Uri dragged his tongue in laborious circles around the head. Blood rushed to meet the stimulation, and the cord squeezed tightly on the erection. The brush of the tongue and feather together very nearly made Kenny catatonic with euphoria.

“Too good,” he whispered, his lips twisting into an O shape. “Ah, oh god… I can’t…”

“Of course, you can,” Uri said playfully. He lapped at the bead of sweet precum on the tip. “You’re only allowed to cum from being fucked by my cock, and I’ll make certain of that.”

Kenny tried to protest, but at that moment, Uri grasped the strings of the clothespins on his thighs and pulled hard. All at once, the clothespins came free, the snapping loud enough to cover Kenny’s gasps. The warmth of inflammation contrasted with the stinging coolness from the peppermint. Just as the pain dulled, Uri tugged the clothespins upon his sides and chest. Kenny very nearly screamed, his body so overwhelmed that he couldn’t even shake any longer. The graze of tongue and feather brought him back to life.

“What a little slut you are,” Uri hummed. “I bet your insides are hot and tight right now… Do you want me to fuck you?”

“Yes, please…”

“ _Yes, please_ , what?” Uri brushed the feather swiftly back and forth upon his balls.

“Goddammit,” Kenny breathed. “Yes, please, fuck me…”

“Oh, should I really do that?” He rubbed his lips together, his bright blue eyes dilated with excitement. “I don’t think I will just yet.”

“Ahhh… why not?” Kenny’s cheeks swelled with heat. “I bet you really can’t wait…”

“You think I can’t wait?” Uri leaned over him, reaching up to grab his chin. “If I really needed to, I could always fuck that smart mouth, but then you wouldn’t know sweet release.” His smirk widened. “If that’s what you want, then harass me over how I can’t wait, and I’ll leave you like this. If you want me to fuck you just right, then you’ll beg me for it. Understood?”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss,” Kenny gasped. His thighs quivered. “Please don’t leave me like this…”

“But you look so good.” From the bundle, Uri drew a Wartenburg pinwheel, a tool with a spiky, rotating head. He held it up, running the pinwheel over his palm. Already Kenny felt his entire body tense. “I have to discipline that needy cock. How it’s bound now will make it much more difficult to cum from your ass and nearly impossible from direct stimulation. If I don’t work you up a good deal, you’ll only be frustrated.” He licked his lips. “I want you to cum so hard that you scream. That’s exactly what Lord Reiss’s little slut wants, right?”

“Yes, Lord Reiss.”

“Good boy.”

At that staccato statement, Uri rolled the pinwheel up the insides of Kenny’s thighs, and Kenny couldn’t help but to cry out. The sensation, intensified by the cool, stinging peppermint, was like gentle pinpricks, only hard enough to just barely stimulate the touch receptors. The pinwheel traveled from his trembling knee to just short of his tense hip joint, repeating the motion on the other leg, over and again. As the pinwheel forced Kenny to shiver all over, Uri hovered his open mouth over the exposed head, his tongue darting out and just barely grazing the dripping tip. Any attempt by Kenny at holding his breath was foiled when the pinwheel rolled over his thick, tight ass. If he had thought he could keep himself from jumping out of his skin, the ticklish pinpricks across his rump forced him to abandon such thoughts. A desperate moan warbled from his twisted lips.

“Please,” he cried, “I want to be touched.”

“I am touching you.” Uri rubbed the bound length with his free hand. “Your greedy cock wants to be touched more, but like I said, I’ll have to discipline it. I’ve been too kind in the past… Then again, it’s in your slutty, needy nature. Try as I might, it may be impossible to rid you of that. Perhaps that’s why you must be disciplined so often.”

Firmly but gently, Uri tapped Kenny’s balls. Still, it was enough to make Kenny quietly shriek. As the pain subsided, Uri reached up to tease Kenny’s nipples. The pressure at the base of his spine was great enough that under normal circumstances he could easily cum, but the way the cord bound him wouldn’t allow release without direct, constant stimulation to his prostate. When the pinwheel ran up and down his belly, circling his bellybutton and lingering upon the crests of his hips, he desperately flailed, his hips bucking, ready to be filled.

“Oh god, please,” he begged. “I need it… Please, oh god… I can’t stand it any longer…!”

“What is it that you need?” Uri collected the precum from Kenny on his fingertip. “I want to hear exactly what you want and need.”

“Oh god,” Kenny said breathlessly, “I need you to fuck me.”

“Fuck you?” A grin tugged at Uri’s lips. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“You know how, you bastard.”

“Calling me names won’t get you anything.” Uri pulled back and set the pinwheel aside. His eyes sparkled. “Tell me exactly what you need and want. Use those big boy words that I taught you.”

“I need you to fuck me.” Kenny arched his back, the handcuffs shaking on his wrists. “Please hurry.”

“Fuck you where?” Uri hummed. “That smart mouth? Those perky tits? Maybe I could press your thighs together and mark your belly as mine.” His grip wrapped about the spreader bar between Kenny’s knees. “Or maybe you want me to fuck that tight ass.”

“Yes,” was the only breathless response. “Please…”

“Yes, _please_ ,” Uri repeated with a sigh. “You know that’s not good enough.”

From the silk bundle, Uri retrieved a riding crop. Licking his lips, he batted it back and forth between Kenny’s thighs, the smack of damp flesh loud in both their ears. Uri’s face lit up with a toothy, sadistic grin.

“I won’t let up until that sweet ass blushes as bright as your face,” he said. “Even then, you may have to beg.”

The riding crop connected hard on Kenny’s exposed ass, forcing Kenny to suck in a ragged breath. By now, endorphins had all but eradicated the pain response, leaving but a euphoric rush in his brain with each smack of the crop. Like the rhythmic beat of a drum, the crop connected over and again, each strike sending ripples of pleasure up his spine. Then slowly the power behind each strike intensified, and the stinging pain broke through the endorphin response, crescendoing until Kenny went into sensory overload.

“Oh god,” Kenny gasped, recoiling with each strike of the crop, “I can’t stand anymore. I need it… Please, oh god.”

“You need it?” Uri asked, slightly raising his brow. “I already told you such words weren’t good enough.” With the snapping of his wrist, he brought the crop down harder on Kenny’s ass. Each forlorn gasp from Kenny’s mouth made Uri quiver with excitement, his own breath starting to hitch in his throat. “Tell me what I want to hear now. I won’t tell you again.”

“Oh god, I need your cock,” he sputtered. His hips bucked stiffly. “Please fuck me. Please don’t leave me like this any longer.”

“Is that so?” Uri flicked the crop on his thigh, close to the hip joint. “It’s hard to deny you when you beg so sweetly.” He tossed the crop aside. “You’re so lucky that I love to take care of my sweet little slut.”

From his current position, with his hips above his head, Kenny would have been unable to see even if his eyes weren’t crossed with euphoria. Still, when he heard the familiar opening of a jar, his heart thundered in his chest, and a shudder went up his spine. The nerve endings at the base of his spine buzzed in anticipation of the fulfilling touch to come. When he felt the cool, lubricated fingertips upon his entrance, he gasped, his entire body suddenly going still. Not quite pressing hard enough to slip inside, Uri’s fingertips drew circles around the hungry hole, ready to devour fingers and cock alike. When Uri didn’t go beyond the tease, Kenny shivered and moaned.

“Please keep going,” Kenny gasped. “Don’t stop…”

“I haven’t stopped,” Uri cooed. He kissed Kenny’s thigh close to his knee. “I will do as I please unless you tell me otherwise. If you want something, you have to ask for it.”

“Tch, I already said—“

A gentle swat on the balls replaced the rest of what Kenny might have said with a surprised cry. He sucked in a sharp breath, his thighs bouncing against their restraints. Uri applied just the slightest pressure on the tight ring of muscle with his fingertips, just enough to torment his partner.

“That’s not how I taught you to speak to me,” Uri scolded. “If you want to be rewarded, then you’ll behave.”

“I’m sorry,” Kenny whimpered. “Please… hurry. Hurry and fuck me.” His jaw clenched, the blush of his cheeks almost paralyzing. “I want to be filled by Lord Reiss…”

“Oh, I see.” Uri pulled his hand away, reveling in the moan that warbled from Kenny’s lips. “If that’s what you want, then you’ll be filled.”

Anticipation squeezed Kenny’s belly as his crossed eyes blurred the ceiling above. Upon hearing the opening of the jar once more, he held his breath, his hips and shoulders stiffening, his toes curling. When he felt the cold pressing of glass against his entrance, however, his entire body tensed. The whimpered protest was forgotten when the glass wand in Uri’s hand pressed into him, the iciness contrasting the hotness of his insides. The nerve endings at the base of his spine shrieked their need for fulfillment, erasing all other thoughts. In that moment, he completely and irrevocably belonged to Uri. His thighs quivered.

“You wanted to be filled, right?” Uri gripped the spreader bar between Kenny’s knees with his free hand. His blue eyes feasted upon the panting slut before him. “If so, this should satisfy you.”

“N-no…” Kenny sucked in a deep breath as the glass wand moved around inside of him. “I said… I said already…”

“I don’t need to remind you to properly beg.” Uri smirked. “I’ll reward you as I see fit if you ask the right way. If you don’t, then you’ll be punished.”

Almost at the beckoning of Uri’s words, the glass wand found its mark, signaled by Kenny’s sudden scream. Uri sucked in a deep breath—Kenny, even through his unfocused vision, could tell from the tension in his shoulders and the light in his eyes that he just barely held himself back. Uri, however, had an unbreakable resolve. He focused the icy touch upon the tender spot that after so much stimulation would give his beau sweet release. Each pass over it turned Kenny’s vision white and twisted his lips agape, still trying futilely to contain the moans within his mouth.

“Heh… you’re cute, trying not to scream.” Uri dragged his free hand through his platinum locks. “Don’t hold in that lovely voice. I want to hear it.”

Perhaps, with a clearer mind, Kenny would have resisted a bit longer if only to torture Uri with his own need. As a low moan wheezed from his lungs, his entire body started to shake much like the way his lip trembled. His thoughts had already departed from his mind, but now he couldn’t even breathe without making a sound. The faint warbles didn’t take long to become forlorn, needy moans, the kind that made Uri’s knuckles turn white and those blue orbs dilate with hunger. Still, that mental fortitude was stronger than any need, and Uri wouldn’t let up until he heard the words he had endeavored to extract. By now, the glass wand only grazed the very edge of the spot. Kenny gritted his teeth and breathed in sharply through his nose.

“Lord Reiss, f-fuck me, please…”

“Oh?” Uri raked the fingernails of his free hand down the inside of one sweat-slicked thigh, leaving red marks upon the pale flesh. “I’m not certain if I should. Perhaps you’ll get enough stimulation out of this to find release—but probably not. If you really want me to fuck you, you’ll have to use the words that I like.”

The overwhelming pressure at the base of his spine threatened to completely obliterate Kenny’s control over himself. If he were to indulge Uri’s need, he only had a limited amount of time left before he devolved into a slutty, moaning mess. His hips shook with each word he spoke.

“Lord Reiss, please fuck me,” Kenny whimpered, his glassy eyes rolling back. “I need to be fucked… I need to be fucked by Lord Reiss’s cock…” His breath hitched in his throat. “Only Lord Reiss’s cock can give me what I need…”

“And what does my greedy little pet need from my cock?”

“Lord Reiss’s greedy little pet needs to be filled with his hot, sticky cum,” he answered without hesitation. “Please… please fuck me…”

“I don’t think I could decline such an invitation.” Uri licked his lips. “I suppose it can’t be helped. I’m a kind man, after all. If it’s to be fucked that you desire, then I’m all too happy to indulge and to spoil my sweet pet.”

Uri pulled out the glass wand slowly, the sudden emptiness only emphasizing Kenny’s desperate need. Normally Uri might have taken the time to clean off his tools and to set them off to the side away from the bed, but even he couldn’t hold back at this point. With subtly shaking hands, he unbuttoned his trousers, his own dripping cock breaking free of its cloth prison. Sparing only a brief moment to slick himself in lubricant, he gripped those tense thighs and pressed himself flush against the bucking hips. Easily that hungry hole took him to the hilt.

“Goddammit,” Uri gasped, “you feel too good…”

The prior stimulation from the glass tool had only intensified Kenny’s need to be touched in the particular way only Uri’s cock could satisfy. Still, Uri pulled out slowly and held him there on the tip of his cock, his grip blanching on Kenny’s hips, basking in the sight of Kenny’s desperation, clear on his face.

“You’re lucky that I’m a kind enough man to spoil you,” he muttered. The tightness of his grip and the furrowing of his brow compromised his cool façade. “Fuck… Be a good boy and scream for me.”

“Y-yes, Lord Reiss,” Kenny answered breathlessly.

As soon as the response came from those lips, Uri slammed his hips flush to Kenny’s. Being so suddenly filled, Kenny couldn’t help but scream, his head thrown back against the pillow. Prompted by the sounds he couldn’t resist, Uri rocked his hips, his pace quickening with each thrust. The hammering upon his prostate reduced Kenny to a mindless slut, solely preoccupied with the release to be granted by the graciousness of his lover’s cock. Pleasure-wracked, he offered himself up to be used for their mutual satisfaction.

“So good,” he said, his voice crescendoing into shouts. “So good… More… Fuck me more…”

“More?” Uri smirked, his eyes blazing through the platinum hair stuck on his brow. “If you insist…”

Kenny was but a slave to the building pressure at the base of his spine, demanding to be released. Each thrust, each more urgent than the last, brought them closer to ecstasy, just a few strokes away. Their hot, shallow breaths and moans filled the air between them. The edge was in sight when Kenny spoke.

“Oh god, I’m going to cum!”

“Then cum for me,” Uri purred.

Just as those words rolled off Uri’s tongue, the pressure within Kenny released. Every muscle in his body fell still for just one moment before the shockwave took his senses. The needy moans amplified into breathy cries as hot, sticky cum spurted from his thundering, bound cock and across his tight belly. Uri wasn’t far behind, burying his own seed within Kenny. Together they rode out the waves of pleasure, their tense bodies motionless, flush against each other. When finally the moment passed, Uri loosened his grip upon Kenny’s thighs.

“Fuck.” Uri eased back onto his heels, pulling out of Kenny. He dragged his hands through his hair and moved it away from his sticky face. “That was too good…”

Kenny relaxed against the bed as Uri undid his binds. He rubbed his sore wrists after they were released from the handcuffs.

“Anything for you,” he muttered, “as you would do for me.”

Uri busied himself with cleaning Kenny with a cloth. “Of course,” he answered, slightly pained. “I’m sorry.” He furrowed his brow. “I’m just… really happy to…”

Before the tears could break the surface of his eyes, Kenny threw his arms around Uri and brought him close to his chest. Uri stiffened.

“Don’t you dare dwell on that,” he whispered. “I gave you permission to do as you please with the condition that you wouldn’t feel weak again. Don’t you dare go back on that.”

Uri fell lax in Kenny’s arms. “Right,” he said. “Thank you, Kenny.”

That night, they slept more peacefully than they had in the months since Kenny’s initial departure. Perhaps in the future there would be minor disputes with Rod, but never again would the elder Reiss brother blatantly disparage the younger Lord Reiss—or at least not during the rest of Uri’s lifetime.


End file.
